My Immortal
by Sinister Scribe
Summary: Ever noticed how Immortals are always arrogant, narcissistic jerks? Who do we know like that? Huddy, faeries and family dysfunction. Rated for my usual.
1. Air and Darkness

**Okies kids, I know I said yesterday that I was only gonna do the stories that I had started just now, so here we are. I've been wanting to write this for ages so I finally sat down and did the first chapter. **

**This is another fantasy one along similar lines to the House/Dresden one that I did a few months back. **

**Because I can.**

**Lemme know what u think kiddies. A bit more shall be explained in the next chapter. **

**Ciaooo, Scribe. **

**Air and Darkness**

"House!"

House's shoulders hunched and he pretended not to notice the rapid click of heels approaching behind him. He sheathed his cane over his back and zipped up his jacket. Swinging his leg over his bike, he sought to make a quick get away but her hand slapping him through the leather of his jacket had him halting with a grinding sound eking out from between his molars.

"What?" He demanded, spinning to look at her, she was closer than he had anticipated and he had a full second to absorb her closeness before she leant back on her heel and denied him that proximity.

"That's it? You reel off a list of tests and now you're just going to ride off into the sunset without even doing a proper differential?" Cuddy threw her arms wide as if she had somehow expected better of him.

"You asked me to put my team on the case." He spoke smoothly and polished an imaginary streak of grime from his helmet. "They're on it."

"You're the head of the department!" Her eyes blazed and he couldn't help but lean a little closer. She threw off energy and vitality like most people threw off body heat. She probably didn't even realise how enticing he found her.

"You asked me to take the case and I took it. You wanted my whole team on it and they're all on it. Selflessly sacrificing their weekends on your idiotic whim." He smirked at her, just to see the flush score her cheeks at the flare of her temper. "So don't start complaining when I can actually get my minions to work for me without micromanaging _everything."_

_ "_Well, if I don't manage you, nothing gets done!" She snapped back.

"You couldn't manage me if you tried. I am completely un-managable." He grinned at her. Inordinately pleased by this.

She stared at him for a full minute.

"You need your head looking at." She spun away and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. She probably had a tension headache forming. It was a sad state of affairs when he even gave brief thought to rubbing it away for her.

"I could say the same for the girls there, but for entirely different reasons." He leered at her chest and then bobbed his eyebrows at her. He watched her suppress her smile and then force herself back to being mad at him.

"This patient is important to the hospital. Would it be too much to ask for you to pull your weight around here once in a while?" Her tone was sarcastic but there was a lacing of earnest curiosity through it. She genuinely wanted to know what he thought on that.

He looked up at the ceiling of the concrete basement car lot and shut one eye in a squint of mock deep though.

"Never mind." She muttered. "What I want you to do is--"

"Shut up." House directed suddenly, spinning on his good leg and looking behind him. Cuddy couldn't see from where she was standing, but there was a fierce scowl on his features as he scanned the cavernous concrete hall of the basement parking lot. His senses tightened and tingled. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and the bones in his right arm seemed to hum in readiness. His fingers twitched once and he even managed to drown out some of Cuddy's screeching about him 'shushing' her and how it so obviously displeased her.

He didn't give that much attention because it didn't matter. It didn't matter because they weren't alone. When he meant they weren't alone, he did not mean that a security guard was making his rounds. He meant that there was something inhuman in the shadows, lurking, waiting to strike.

His mouth went dry even as the bitter taste of adrenaline flooded it. He swallowed once and then turned back to Cuddy.

"Go back inside."

She stopped, mid-tirade about something that really did not deserve his attention and planted her hands on her hips.

"Excuse you?"

He moved closer to her, grabbing her arm and hustling her back towards the elevator that would take her back up to the hospital and all the pretty iron things there.

"Go back inside. Right now." His tone brooked no argument.

She dug her heels in. "Hold on, since when did I do what you told me?"

"Since you wanted to live out the night?" He was facing away from her when he spoke so he was pretty sure that she hadn't heard all of it.

Something scuttled in the shadows.

The lights flickered.

The temperature suddenly dropped at least fifteen degrees and their breath clouded in front of their faces.

"Aw hell." House muttered, seconds before they were plunged into darkness. He felt Cuddy stiffen in surprise and fear under his grip and he wasted no time in hauling her closer to his body. His right hand whirled his cane, point up, his leather glove flexing on the worn handle. He couldn't even make out the flames painted on the end…but he could feel them.

A bellow filled the air and the sound of many heavy feet rushing, stomping, charging towards them both shook the very foundations of the car lot. House recognised the musty smell that filled the air and winced.

Trolls, fantastic.

"Whatever happens, don't let go of me." He told her and gripped her cold fingers in his. She must have been freezing, but he knew that his skin was still warm. He felt toasty even in just his biker jacket that he was wearing.

"House, what the…?" Cuddy broke off abruptly when a brilliant golden light flared with a tongue of fire. The light shot from the end of House's cane like it was a flame thrower and arced up towards the ceiling, smashing into the bare concrete there and spreading over it in a blanketing inferno that illuminated the entire cavernous structure of the parking lot…and it's hideous occupants.

Cuddy's grip tightened on House's shoulder. She didn't have words with what those…_things_ were. They were huge, at least nine feet tall, barely humanoid in shape with grey-green skin, curving ivory tusks curling from snarling mouths and encrusted in plates of armour that looked like wet granite. Things that looked disturbingly like human skulls hung in wreathes around their massive necks and rattled with every T-Rex sized stride. There was at least a dozen of them and they all carried battle axes or hammers that were as long as Cuddy was tall and probably weighed five times as much.

She staggered on her high heels when House pushed her behind him and snarled something at the monsters in a language she didn't recognise. Whatever he had said had apparently been as polite as he usually was because the lead monster gave another bone rattling bellow and swung down with his mallet.

"Shit." House whirled and grabbed her around the waist before they…took off.

House just _leaped_ and they were flying through the air. Cuddy's stomach swooped at the sudden acceleration and she would have screamed if her mind hadn't been too busy telling her that this wasn't possible. They landed hard and House cried out once, staggering on his bad leg under their combined weight.

"You are _not_ a hundred and ten pounds." He told her on a grim smile and turned back in time to duck from another swing of the mallet. Geez, those guys were _fast._ His cane lashed up, still on fire, and smashed right through the granite armour of the thing's arm. The monster roared in pain as its armour melted away and flesh singed clean to the bone with a horrible burning stench. Another troll replaced his fellow and swung with an axe this time. House leaped again, pulling Cuddy with him effortlessly until he landed hard. Again.

He couldn't take much more of this. Not here.

His cane lashed again and a rip opened in the very air itself.

"What the hell is that?!" Cuddy demanded of him finally. Trust her to find her voice now.

"Doorway to Underhill, next question?"

Cuddy screamed as he dragged her through it.


	2. Hounds and Horrors

A Chill Wind Blows

**Phew! Another chapter AND a companion piece coloured and posted up on deviantart!!**

**Haven't I been a busy person. I think I deserve some kudos for that. At the very least a choccie biccie. **

**No? **

**Fine then. Be that way. **

**Reviews shall suffice, lol. **

**Wheeeeeeee, I've had SUGAR.**

**And yes this is all just got a whole lot weirder and I did mean to say 'you need your head LOOKING at' (but maybe that is a bit more british than Cuddy is likely to say)in the last chapter and it's all action for this chapter too so any explanations will have to wait until NEXT update.**

**And can we spot the movie reference in this chappie??**

**I put a Batman one in the first chapter and nobody figured it out. I am most disappointed children :wags finger at y'all:**

**Ciaoooo. **

**A Chill Wind Blows**

Cuddy smashed into the snow and tumbled end over end. House was still wrapped around her, taking the brunt of the impact. Even if it was softened by the fluff of the snow, it was still a rocky ride. Finally they rolled to a halt and Cuddy reared back, pulling her face from the snow, gasping. House was a dark lump in the snow beside her. He groaned once and rolled onto his back. She watched while he lifted his cane up to look at it, blackened, melted and twisted beyond recognition. Despite its flame decoration, the cane obviously hadn't been fire retardant.

"Shit." He muttered and tossed it away. He glanced sideways at her to see her panting and shivering beside him.

"Where are we?" She whispered.

House spread his arms with a wry smile as if making a gimpy snow angel. "Welcome to Underhill. Finest Fey resort in the universe."

"What?" Cuddy's voice seemed to be getting progressively smaller.

"Underhill. Realm of the Faerie Courts, Seelie and Unseelie alike. Though, as you can probably tell, we do appear to be in the Unseelie realm of air and fucking darkness…which incidentally hadn't been my intention." House rolled to his feet and stood without the aid of his cane. He reached down and drew Cuddy to her feet.

She was beginning to shiver in earnest now, staring about herself at the dark forest with wide frightened eyes. The trees stretched tall and looming above them, the branches thick and evergreen. The shadows were thick like a mist rolling over the gnarled roots and the jewel hued sky overhead rolled in varying colours of blue, purple and green. Snow fell in thick fluffy flakes and dusted them both in glittering crystals. She'd stopped talking, shivering harder, hugging herself. She was going into shock. House pulled off his leather jacket, and his shirt too he wrapped her in both of them.

"Come on, Cuddy, stay with me. It's alright." He rubbed at her arms. She couldn't flip out on him now. He needed her to stay alert. He didn't have long…

"We were just in the car lot." She swallowed hard. "And then…then those _things _attacked us and…and you…"

"Cuddy, come with me, we need to go this way." He deliberately gentled his voice so as not to spook her further. This was hard for her to accept as it was, never mind all the magic in the air would be slamming into her senses like a truck. It would be like a chronic hayfever sufferer standing in a meadow full of wild flowers. Sensory implosion. He took her smaller hand in his and pulled her along with him. She looked dazed, half drunk, but struggling against it. He had to get them both someplace safe. Those trolls wouldn't be long behind them.

"You're not limping."

"What?" He turned to look at her, still pulling her through the snow.

"Your leg, it doesn't hurt you any more." Her eyes were already clearing, Jesus Christ that had been fast.

"Long story." He muttered and lifted his hand to his mouth. He let loose a piercing whistle that echoed through the trees on a long drawn out musical note. He listened hard to the muffled sounds of the snow and then repeated the whistle.

Still nothing.

Shit.

"Aren't you cold?" Her teeth were clattering despite having taken his extra clothes.

"Nope." He said cheerfully and waded through a drift of snow. She was picking her way through his tracks behind him, her hand had a death grip on his. He lifted his other hand to his mouth again and gave another piercing whistle.

"But you're shivering." She told him and he looked at his hand. It was indeed trembling. Fuck. He was running out of time. This was his fault, he had to hide her. "You should have run when I told you to." He said to her sharply.

"Kind of didn't know I would be wandering into the set of Lord of the Rings." She snapped back. He smirked.

"That's more…" He grimaced as if in pain suddenly and gritted his teeth against a groan. "Like it." He finished on a gasp.

"House? House what's wrong?" Her hands were on his shoulders, trying to hold him up, but his legs gave out beneath him. "House, talk to me!" She demanded.

"Everything's…under…control…" He gasped, doubling over and clutching his stomach.

"House, you're…_glowing."_

He watched as she staggered back from him, a look of mystified shock across her face. He reached out to her. He couldn't protect her if she ran from him. Here she would need his protection. She had no idea what went on here. He tried to imagine the quickening from on onlooker's point of view. His glamour being ripped forcibly away by the magic in the atmosphere of the inner realm. Another slam of energy shook him and he shut his eyes and snarled against the pain of his heritage reasserting itself over his assumed shape. The mask he had worn for the last twenty years being dissolved in front of her very eyes.

To her it would look like the moonlight itself was bleeding into him. That his body was drawing it in and swallowing it greedily. His skin would be paler, shimmering shadows of purple and green on the pale flesh. The middle aged looseness of his mortal form falling away to rippling muscles roping his frame in lethal healthiness. His hair darkening to ebony, slightly longer and wilder about his head. His eyes would begin to shimmer, a deeper spectrum of opalescent colours whirling in the depths there. Changing from blue to green, purple with flashes of gold and back again in a permanent kaleidoscope of colour. The other changes would be more frightening, the horns growing out of his head from behind his temples, erupting painfully through the skin seeping dark blood as they did. Deep green and black in colour, shining in the moonlight curling around his brow and pointing up towards the sky in spearing sharp points. The fangs he was now baring in pain, slightly longer eye-teeth than human normal. His ears would be pointed, slightly longer than human with swirling deep blue Celtic knot designs over the delicate whorls of his ears.

And she would be watching all of this with no idea of why it was happening or when it would stop.

"Cuddy…" He stretched a hand out towards her.

"Who…_what_ are you?" She was backing away from him. She stumbled out of one of her shoes in the drifting snow.

The flesh of his chest was burning. He growled a raw animal sound at the new pain and yanked at the tee shirt, ripping it in half from collar to navel as if it were tissue paper he grabbed fistfuls of snow and packed it against the searing skin, wincing as it hissed and evaporated away in steam. Ink bubbled up from under his skin, long since hidden in the iron rich air of the mortal world. The dragon tattoo, black red and gold blazed to life over his chest and shoulder. It lashes its glittering red tongue against his skin and wriggled over his flesh happily at being worn with pride once more.

"Jesus Christ!" Cuddy backed away even further at the impossible act of a moving tattoo. The dragon on House's chest winked once at her when she pointed dumbfounded.

"Not possible." She shook her head and moved to back away.

"Cuddy, don't run. It's still me." He staggered to his feet and took a hesitant step towards her. All the power he had been missing for the last twenty years of exile from Underhill had just slammed back into him all at once. It was intoxicating. Like the biggest hit ever and he was trying to regain control of his limbs long enough to grab a hold of the only free mortal in the faerie realm and prevent her from running off and getting herself killed.

"Screw this." Cuddy murmured and turned on her heel to sprint away from him. She shrieked in surprise and fell back when he appeared in front of her.

Not caught up with her and sidled in front of her. Just _appeared_ right in front of her like some freaking phantom. He caught her before she fell on her ass.

"Stop being an idiot. So I look a little different, you should see yourself in some of those 'dresses' you wear to fundraisers. Now there's an exercise in oddity." He snapped at her and gripped her wrist in his hand in a gentle but iron grip.

"It's never stopped you from ogling me though, has it?" She snapped back and he hid his smile. Defensive was much more preferable to hysterical. Her face suddenly registered horrified realisation. "My God, it really is you, isn't it?"

He considered distracting her with another snide comment but decided that might be pushing it and the truth would do in this instance.

"Yeah. My true colours." He bobbed his eyebrows at her.

"Are they…?" She reached up towards his head before he could stop her and ran her fingers over the rippled ivory feeling surface of his horns. They were ridged like a ram's were but a slightly different shape, almost like a bull's but in fitting with a human sized skull. House jerked back with a grunt of surprise as if he'd been groped inappropriately. Which, in a sense, he had. The fey didn't have horns for fighting with. Just another erogenous zone for a species high on sensation already. He gripped her fingers and pulled them away forcibly, though with a little regret.

"Do me a favour and don't do that again." He told her.

"Why? Does it hurt?" She was now engrossed in the dragon tattoo over his chest. The glittering black scales of the Chinese style beast with glowing gold eyes and a fiery mane running down its back. It arched under her touch like a cat needing a good petting. It was odd to feel it on his skin again. Even odder to feel her touching him like this. He huffed out a breath and reminded himself they were in enemy territory and that anything that kept her from going into a hysterical fit was fine by him. Molest away.

He smirked then. "Decidedly not." He muttered and turned away from her again. He really didn't need her noticing what a single touch from her hand had done to the fit of his jeans. He cleared his throat and tried to orientate himself. He put his fingers to his lips once more and let out another fierce whistle. It echoed through the trees and finally died off into silence. He scanned the darkness, his slit pupils widening to distinguish the slightest shadow from another. He couldn't hear them. Couldn't see them coming either. He was beginning to get worried.

"What's that?" Cuddy's grip on his arm tightened a fraction and he turned back to her.

"What's wha…fuck. Run." He tugged her towards him and yelled at her when she stumbled. "Run now!" He pulled her with him, turning and springing through the snow. He moved so quickly and with such power that the snow was thrown up before him like water before a speeding boat. Cuddy was pulled along in his wake, helpless to do anything else but try and keep up and not stagger too much. Truth be told, she was more flying than anything else. House was running to fast for her feet to touch the ground very much. They had just been silver flashes in the night. She had thought she had seen a man astride a horse at one point, perhaps a large dog beside him, but then it had gone in that shimmer of silver against the snow.

_THUNK!_

A spear thudded into the tree just beyond Cuddy's left shoulder and House whirled on a snarl. Throwing out his arm with a grated word spat from between bared fangs. A blast of air lashed out from his spread fingers and shoved at the snow like a giant playing with a shovel. A tidal wave of snow arched up and smashed over a horse and rider with a cry from the rider and a panicked squeal from the mount.

"Keep up." He said to her again, his face hard. Carved from marble and fierce with it. His horns (Cuddy still couldn't really believe that he had them) leant him a demonic countenance when he scowled like that.

Cuddy turned back to follow after him and nearly ran into his back when he ground to a halt. Another rider and mount whirled in the snow in front of them. The rider was dressed in dark shining armour, a huge lance in one hand and a long spiralling horn protruding from his mount's forehead. It was a unicorn.

"Of course it's a unicorn, Lisa," she muttered to herself. "You knew House was going to drive you mad one day, you just figured it wouldn't be quite so colourful, that's all."

"Unfortunately neither of us has gone whacko." House snarled just as the unicorn reared and charged towards them. Snorting steam and plunging wildly through the snow. Horn and lance lowered at them both. "I've always hated this bit. The timing is a bitch." He murmured and sidestepped them both at the last moment. The unicorn flashed past in a thundering of hooves, but not before House had seized the knight's lance and plunged the tip down into the ground. The unfortunate man gave a hellish shriek of surprise and was catapulted from his steed's back in a rather spectacular fashion.

"Heh, bet that'll hurt in the morning…or now." Now that she had accepted that this was all a paranoid delusion, Cuddy was beginning to enjoy herself. She could even admit that House-the-elf was every bit as attractive as his human mirror image had been. If a little weirder.

House shot her a look with his unusual kaleidoscope eyes and then looked heavenward before muttering something that sounded distinctly like 'how do they all find me?' under his breath.

Then they were running again. Cuddy was tiring rapidly but House seemed unfazed by gallivanting across the snow swallowed countryside, half carrying a woman that weighed half of what he did and showing no signs of the limp that had plagued him for the last nine years. A snarl echoed through the woods behind her and Cuddy turned to look, swearing when her footing slipped and she tumbled from House's hold. Crashing to the snow and rolling end over end in a full body battering of pain.

The hounds were on her in a second. One of them burst from the bank of snow behind her and soared over her head only to skid through the snow and whirl on her, ivory fangs bared and glowing blue eyes intent on her throat. Cuddy scrabbled back through the snow. And was stopped by the thump of a thickly muscled furry shoulder knocking her over. There were more hounds. At least a dozen. Huge and lean, hungry teeth dripping with saliva that froze before it hit the ground. Blood red tongues lolling from gaping jaws. They circled her with their pupil-less eyes focused on her like she was a long awaited meal.

"Cuddy!"

Cuddy turned at House's shout. He threw himself in the middle of the hounds and started beating them back with his bare hands. Cuddy had never seen anything so brutal. He picked the first one up by its neck and simply threw it away from himself. It soared through the air on a quailing howl and disappeared into the trees. The second hound had its skull smashed in by a ploughing fist and the third was kicked so hard that its ribs caved in and it fell to the ground and did not move again. By that time though, the element of surprise was lost to House and the rest of the pack leapt at him. Teeth bared and snarls echoing.

House was snarling in that odd language again and Cuddy knew him well enough to recognise his tone of a vicious blue streak of swearing even if she couldn't understand the exact words. He was going to be eaten alive and, even if this was a delusion, she'd rather not her only companion was mauled to death by a rabid pack of massive hounds. She searched for a weapon. A tree branch, a rock, hell her shoe would have done by that point, but she had lost that long ago on their run and everything else was covered in a blanket of snow.

That was when two echoing roars split the night and two slinking shapes of white smashed from the snow and threw themselves into the mêlée of House and the silver skinned hounds. They were cats. Big cats, like cheetahs but white with flashing fiery gold eyes. Their claws slashed and their huge fangs tore chunks from the attacking dogs. Snarls and howls for House's blood soon turned to yelps and yowls for surcease, but the two cats were merciless. They beat back the dogs and savaged them even as they ran, tails between their legs.

Cuddy watched them run, dumbfounded at the change in their luck and then her eyes landed on House…or what was left of him.

"House!" She scrambled over to him, slipping in the snow and the blood until she reached his side. He was crouched on all fours, breathing heavily, his shirt in tatters on his back and his marble pale skin marred with bite upon bite, scratches and blood oozing from wounds all over his torso and arms. His legs were just as bad and his jeans soaked in his dark blood that appeared blue in the moonlight. "Oh God, you need the emergency room."

"Heh, fresh out of those…" His arms quivered at the effort of holding himself up and blood dripped from between his lips, staining his teeth pink.

"Mrowr?"

Cuddy jumped when one of the huge cats appeared at her shoulder and nuzzled at House with a blood pinkened nose.

The other appeared at his other side and Cuddy wrapped an arm around his shoulders, prepared to try and protect him should the cats decide they were hungry for House meat too.

"S'alright…" He slurred to her and managed to sit up on his knees. "Jack, Daniels, come here." He managed a ragged smile and the two massive beasts snuggled up to him like baby kittens, their purring filled the air and he petted them like he'd known them all his life. "This is Cuddy." He spoke around a rapidly swelling split lip and dragged her closer to the animals, taking her hand and pushing it under his against the thick silky fur on Jack's back. Daniels made a jealous sound and demanded petting from Cuddy too until she found herself warily stroking two of the biggest animals she had ever seen. As she had first guessed, they were built like cheetahs, but bigger and less fragile looking, their faces prettier with metallic gold rosettes over their snowy white fur. The only difference between them was that Jack had a five pointed star on her forehead and Daniels had a crescent moon shining on his.

"Look after her guys." House managed and then slumped backwards, collapsing defeated into the snow.

"House!" Cuddy tore her hands from the cats' fur and went into immediate doctor mode. Any though that this insane scenario wasn't real left her head and she began to tick off his vitals in her brain. Pulse, fast but strong. Breathing shallow but regular. He was losing a lot of blood. He needed bandages and probably a transfusion. Cuddy stripped off his leather jacket and pillowed his head with it. His eyes fluttered but he didn't wake.

"House, can you hear me? Wake up, House." She pulled his shirt from her shoulders and began to shred it into strips, the cats helping with their claws after they somehow guessed what she wanted. They watched her silently and anxiously as she bandaged the worst of his wounds. She was working so intently that she didn't even hear the beat of hooves falling heavy in the snow behind her.

She froze when the point of a spear, long and lethally sharp slid under her jaw whisper soft and nipped at the soft skin of her throat.

Jack and Daniels whirled on the spear wielder, fangs bared and snarls echoing, but with the sense not to pounce lest Cuddy be injured by any movement.

"If you want to live, mortal, I suggest you do exactly as instructed."

Cuddy's hands hovered over the still bleeding House, torn between trying to help him and trying to stay alive.

"Shit." She muttered.


	3. Blood and Snow

Blood and Snow

**Okay, this so totally did not go the way I planned it to go but I just sat down and started typing away and here we are with it. **

**Yes, I am aware the ending is not only weird but evil and not much is explained here either but that will come as the story unfolds, definitely, possibly, maybe in the next chapter if not then the one after that. AT SOME POINT all relevant details shall be explained. **

**And you have Scarlett Scribble to thank for the introduction of Coke. **

**Well done to fluteskickbrass for getting the movie references in this one. Sadly there shall be none in this chapter because I forgot all about it until just now. **

**Thanks to EVERYBODY for reviewing. I really appreciate all the compliments and this chapter is just for you guys out there that like to know where my mind wonders when I let it out (it really is too small to be out on its own but that's never stopped me before). **

**Anyways, read and review kids. You know I love it. **

**Blood and Snow**

Cuddy peered down at House, sprawled unconscious on the snow and worried her lip between her teeth. The cold sank into her bones and she fought the urge to shiver even as she watched thick dark blood ooze into the snow around his body. More silvery shapes flashed into the clearing and Cuddy was soon surrounded by armoured knights astride unicorns, all of them with spears levelled at her, Jack and Daniels. Even the limp form of House had a spear levelled at his throat. Cuddy turned her head a fraction of an inch and managed to look at the general shape of the man holding the spear at her. He was on foot, he must have been one of the men that House had knocked from their mount.

"You need to let me help him." She said quietly in an even tone.

"And why should I do that?" The spear rotated against her skin as the man trod softly around her on the blood beaten snow. His leather boots not making a sound. She had the brief impression of deep blue eyes and silvery hair. His voice sounded faintly familiar.

"He's bleeding out. If I don't help him soon, he'll die." She told him baldly. Her fingers pressed down harder on one of House's wounds with a strip from his tattered shirt, blood bloomed over the fabric and he moaned softly. "Please…"

Silence echoed throughout the clearing as Cuddy waited. Her eyes burned and it took her a long moment to realise that frigid tears were slipping from her eyes. She was terrified he was going to die. She couldn't stand the thought of it.

"Please!" She said again.

One of the riders spoke in a harsh tone, in that language Cuddy couldn't understand. A general murmur of assent went through the rest of the group and the spearman finally acknowledged them with a sharp nod.

"Fine. Hengest, heal him and grab the mortal. Then get back to the court. The rest of you with me. She waits." He pulled the spear from her throat and strode away. Cuddy paid him no more attention and instead focused on trying to stop the bleeding.

She bent over him, scrabbling for more bandages, packing snow against his wounds in an attempt to slow the blood loss. He was growing cool under her hands, she was losing him.

"Milady." Boots thumped to the ground at her right and while Jack and Daniels prowled around the newcomer, they did not growl. "Milady, allow me to help." He spoke again, strong hands gentling her frantic movements.

"I'm not your lady and he's bleeding out." Cuddy snapped back, she hadn't realised she was crying until her vision had become blurred and her tears fell on House's alabaster skin. Strong hands wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her away. She fought him. "No! He needs my help!" She struggled, but she might as well have been trapped in iron bars. "No! Let me go!" Cuddy reached blindly for House, his blood seeping out onto the snow. Dark and precious. She had seen this too many times. Seen him hurt and suffering, close to death, this was the last time she could take it. She couldn't tolerate it once more.

Especially if this was the last time.

"Milady, please, sleep."

A languorous feeling stole over Cuddy. Fogging her mind and making her limbs heavy. To leaden to move. Fatigue swamped her, all the adrenaline and terror of the last few minutes finally crashing in on her like a swamping wave.

"Just sleep." His voice echoed in her ear and Cuddy's eyes fluttered closed as she went slack in his arms.

**Sinister Scribe**

House awoke to pain.

He grunted and moved to try and relieve some of it, only to be restricted by the heavy warm weight hefted over his body. He cracked open one cat pupil eye and squinted around the room. He blinked in surprise at having been sequestered in his old rooms in Arctis Tor. The citadel of the Unseelie court. The deepest darkest fortress of shadows and ice and his chambers remained unchanged from when he had lived here as a young man. His bed was the same, the wall hangings, tapestries and paintings still depicted images of fire, light and summer. His bed was still plush and massive, dominating the room with silk and fur sheets. Antlers and ebony making up the solid frame.

He finally looked down his body and decided to check the damage.

Not a scratch. His skin was as smooth and as pale as it had been when he had stepped through that portal to crash into the snow. He still ached, the bone deep ache that came from utter exhaustion. Being healed, even by fey magic, took a lot of energy. Both from the healer and the one being healed. His leg still throbbed dully but nowhere near as much as it had on the mortal plane. There was no iron in the air here to poison him. Magic thrummed through his veins again, dulling the pain in a way that the vicodin had never been able to touch. He had been able to walk, and run, without his cane here. As he had suspected. As he hadn't dared to hope.

After all, what was the point in wishing for something when your exile made it impossible?

Speaking of wishes coming true…Cuddy was draped all over him. She was curled over his chest, arm gripping him like she was afraid he'd slide away. Her head rested on his shoulder, dark curls spilling everywhere, her leg wrapped around his as she breathed softly against his chest…and somebody had seen fit to remove both their clothes under the thick furs. Well, that was going to be awkward when she finally came around and House was in quite enough pain without adding her screeching to his agonies. He wriggled to the side and tried to ease out from under her. Working his arm carefully and wincing at the memory of a particularly vicious bite from one of the Morrigan Hounds.

"Mmf." She made an unhappy sound, her arm tightening on him. He smirked slightly at that and turned at the sound of another unhappy grumble to his left. Jack was sidled up against his side, purring deep in her chest and Daniels was sprawled across his legs along with a tiny scrap of white and gold fur curled between the two huge cats. House frowned and picked it up with one hand. The ball of fluff opened its big gold eyes and blinked at House with a small mewl of question. Jack lifted her head and rumbled at House in a low warning. He looked over to Jack and then down at Daniels who had lifted his head too at the disturbance of their cub.

"Been busy have we?" House wanted to know. Jack purred and nuzzled the baby when it was dropped back down between her front paws. Daniels seemed to have the proud papa smirk pasted on his feline face. House levelled himself on his elbow. The cub staggered up on wobbly legs and padded over to pat at House's chest. House tapped it on the velvet nose and spoke in a low voice.

"I dub thee Coke."

Coke's reply was to curl up by House's ribs and begin to purr like a tiny throttling motor. House watched for a moment, gave one final rub over the kitten's nose and then settled back into the bedfurs.

Cuddy hummed again and then stiffened at his side. Obviously awake now. House waited for the inevitable screeching and braced himself accordingly by pretending to still being asleep. He heard her gasp and then bolt upright, the sheets shifted, he'd bet she'd yanked them up to cover those luscious curves that had been pressed up against him just a few seconds ago. Her weight shifted against him, she was leaning over him now, her hair falling forward to brush against his chest and chin. Her fingers danced over him, checking tender areas where he knew he'd been bitten and scratched. Her hands were gentle, smooth, warm. He'd never had them on him without the barrier of patient to doctor and latex gloves put up between them. He had to bite back a purr of his own when she pulled back the fur and examined his belly. Her fingers trailed through the sparse arrow of hair leading from his chest down over his belly and…she stopped at the angle of his hipbone and cleared her throat. He could feel the heat coming off her.

Mortal heat. Mortal passion. Intense, flavourful and as addictive as any drug. House wanted to open his eyes and look at her, to watch her changing expressions. The darkening of her eyes, the way she bites her lip sometimes, the delicious mussed mess that her hair could get into sometimes.

Her hands smoothed over him again, back up his belly, over the ridged muscles of his stomach, the swell of his pectoral, the line of his collar bone and the cords of his neck. She traced the shape of his ears, the swirl of the deep blue tattoos there, the delicate points. He couldn't repress a shiver, he'd always had sensitive ears and that had nothing to do with being an immortal. He could have cursed himself when she pulled her hands away as if burned. He settled back down and decided to wait. Hoping her curiosity would get the better of her and return her questing hands to him again.

He didn't have to wait long.

Her fingers touched his dragon tattoo this time. Over the muscles of his chest and the angle of his shoulder. He felt the enchanted ink, his connection to his father, writhe on his skin and arch to her touch. His dragon liked the feel of Cuddy almost as much as he did. He heard her chuckle near silently and waited for what she might do next. Next she touched his face, running one finger over the curve of his cheekbone then over the stubble of his jaw. Then around the angle of his chin and up the other side of his face to his temple, through his thick now black hair to hesitantly touch his horns.

Pleasure bloomed down his spine and arrowed straight for his loins which suddenly didn't feel as tired and as beaten as the rest of him did. Again, he couldn't repress a shiver, but she seemed beyond noticing as she leant forward against him, the swell of her breasts pushing against him through the thick fur. He could smell her heat. Couldn't help but smell it. She wanted him, like this, but she was no doubt at least a little confused by that. She let go of her sheet with the other hand and that freed her to explore the curl of both horns with both hands. He fought the urge not to arch and groan for her. She didn't have any idea what she was doing but that didn't affect the way he felt about it.

He felt Jack, Daniels and Coke pad down off the bed and away.

House, grit his teeth together when her delicate fingers traced the ridges of his horns right from the sharp tips down to the thicker base flush against his skull. He could almost hear the scientific wheels ticking round in her head, trying to work out how a creature such as him could have possibly have evolved. He had wondered the same thing when he had first found out what he was. She parted his hair and leant closer, he could feel the warm rush of her breath over his cheek and he suddenly couldn't stand it any more.

He pounced.

**Sinister Scribe**

Cuddy awoke to find herself draped over House like a cheap suit. She pried herself away from his warm skin and felt her cheeks burn high with embarrassed heat. She hauled the bed…furs up around her chest and double checked to make sure that he was still asleep. He lay perfectly still, his sculpted chest rising and falling gently with each breath.

Cuddy's eyes widened. There wasn't a mark on him. She moved forward, careful to keep her sheet up about her cleavage. It wouldn't do to have him waking up eye to chest with her. He may look a bit different now but he was still the same House underneath all that. She worried her lip between her teeth. She wanted to make sure he was alright. Her internal clock told her she hadn't been out for more than a few hours. Definitely not long enough to heal so completely from the wounds that House had received. His pale skin wasn't even pinkened by the bite marks. He was flawless. She smoothed her hands over his chest to feel for any raised scars but there were none.

He really was built like this. He still looked like a middle aged man, but definitely now a middle aged man in his physical prime. Smooth skin over cobbled muscles on his belly, even the serrated muscles on his ribs flexed with each breath. The pale hue of his skin was shadowed in purples and fain greens, his nipples were even that odd hue but darker. His skin seemed to shimmer like it had been oiled with that glitter stuff that kids sometimes wore out to clubs. His hair was darker, ebony, thick and wild about his head. Threaded with gold and…yes, silky to the touch. Her fingers lead her to his ears now. She smiled, he looked like on of Tolkein's elves but the tattoos were definitely not 'Lord of the Rings' fair. She touched them gently, just to double check if they were real and this really wasn't some dream or some elaborate hoax.

He twitched and she snatched her hands away, immediately thinking that she'd hurt him. Her eyes tracked over him and she realised exactly how different he looked. Exactly how…well, he'd always been attractive but now he was gorgeous. She'd always found him intriguing, handsome in a quirky kind of way but now she just wanted to…Cuddy shied away from that thought.

He seemed to have stilled again. Her eye caught on the black scaled dragon tattoo on his chest and shoulder. The beast was perched over his collar bone, draping down over the pectoral muscle with claws digging in to his skin on either side of his flat male nipple. The dragon was of a tribal slightly stylised design, with flames ridged along its back glittering and flickering instead of spikes or hair. Its eyes watched Cuddy back though, and that was a bit disturbing. She touched its nose and it flexed against House's skin. She could feel the movement but it didn't actually move, if that made any sense. It seemed to be entirely two dimensional.

She looked away, that part was the hardest to accept about House's 'new look'.

His head turned slightly towards her and the faint glow from the candles dotted around the room caught on the tips of his horns. Cuddy couldn't help but grin. She'd always said he was a horny bastard but she never thought she'd be given such damning evidence to prove her right. She inched closer to him once more. Surely he couldn't be hurt if she touched his horns? Her fingers stretch out tentatively and touched one of them once, just to see what it felt like. Her fingers circled the girth of one of the horns. It was warm and smooth to the touch. Ridged like a ram's. Her fingers traced the curve and then delved under his hair to touch where the horn met his scalp. The join from horn to skull was seamless.

Her other hand released the sheet at her breasts and stretched out to touch his other horn. The sheet slipped but she ignored it in favour of exploring House's head. How was it possible for him to have horns? Darwin's theory of evolution stated that animals evolved with features such as this for a reason. Attractive human women, for example, would have an hourglass figure because full hips and chest were better for birthing and rearing children. Men had the wide shoulders and slim hips of the triangle shape desirous because this meant that the male would be a powerful hunter and a good provider. Good genes were dictated by good looks. Cuddy wondered idly what the hell horns meant on…whatever House actually turned out to be and whether or not House would be considered attractive due to, ahem, size and…curl? Colour?

She tilted her head and stroked his horns again. They were so odd, so fascinating to her. Similar to many things she had seen before but different at the same time. Especially odd when they sprouted from what was essentially a human skull. She wondered…

"Ack!"

Cuddy gave an inelegant squawk as she was suddenly flipped onto her back with one very large, spicy smelling male specimen stretched out on top of her. House's arm slid under her back and hauled her up against his chest, only the fur between them separating their skins. His face was buried in her hair and she heard him inhale deeply.

"Do you have _any_ idea of what you were doing to me?" He rasped in her ear.

"I…uh, I wanted to know what your horns were for…" She spoke quietly her voice dying off when his teeth closed gently over her earlobe and tugged.

"They're for sex." He told her bluntly. His teeth scraping her jaw. "Like this." His mouth crashed down over hers. His tongue sliding inside as if in a proclamation of ownership. Cuddy could only groan as he deepened the kiss. She knew she shouldn't be doing this. Knew that he was still the same rude bastard underneath it all and that she was probably in a situation that was a lot stranger and possibly a lot more dangerous than she had really thought about but…her arms were still winding about his neck and her fingers tunnelling through his thick hair. She touched his horns mainly by accident. Not used to them being there and gasped in surprise when he bucked his hips against hers and groaned. She could feel the shift of his tattoo against her skin, it was hot and flexing…like other parts of his anatomy.

"This too." He broke the kiss from her on a ragged moan. His hand delved into her hair, pulling her head back and his teeth scraped over her jaw line. He nibbled down the line of her throat. His lips reached something cold and hard and he froze. Pulling back, he looked down at Cuddy. Her passion glazed eyes, the flush high in her cheeks, her kiss swollen lips the bite marks trailing down her throat right up to the edge of the jewelled collar around her neck. It was made up of finely wrought white gold panels, encrusted with amber and ruby stones. It linked completely and seamlessly around her neck, a single gold chain hanging down over the hollow of her throat and a diamond and gold string hanging from that down to the valley of her cleavage.

"House, what's wrong? Are you hurt?" She was frowning up at him.

House could only stare at the collar, clasped about her neck while she was asleep obviously. He looked down at his right arm and stared at the matching cuff on his right wrist.

"House?"

"Cuddy?" House looked from the cuff and then back to the collar around her neck, catching the light and shimmering brightly like the pretty bauble that it was.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Why are you wearing a marriage collar?"


	4. Oaths and Bonds

Oaths and Bonds

**Okies, here we are, chapter 4!!**

**Just for the record, I think I wrote myself out of that cliff-hanger admirably. A bit more explanation as to what the hell is going on and the introduction of the loveable Mari, who started off as being a silent character and somehow morphed into a Glasgow hairdresser. **

**For the record 'fashed' translates into stressed or angry. **

**And I'm not telling you what **_**hellra**_** means but it's important so remember it. **

**Aaaaannnd….read and review me!! **

**Oaths and Bonds**

"_Why are you wearing a marriage collar?"_

Cuddy blinked at him, her body suddenly feeling very cold. She swallowed with a slow exaggeration and dropped her hands away from his shoulders.

"What?"

House stared at her for a long moment, still pinning her to the mattress. "I said that out loud didn't I?"

Cuddy nodded and smiled with no humour. "Uh, yeah."

He rolled away from her and off the bed, snarling something under his bed and striding across the room; completely naked and seemingly unbothered by it. He tunnelled a hand through his already unruly hair and ground his teeth on another low growl. Cuddy pulled the fur back up to offer her some semblance of modesty and tucked it under her arms. Heat scored her cheeks and she tried not to ogle him too much as he strode angrily about the room, swearing in that odd alien language of his. She had no idea what was going on, still, but she was a little afraid of what the answer might be if she asked.

She jumped when he strode to the ebony and crystal door of the chamber and threw it open with on powerful move from his arm. A passer-by jumped at the sudden burst of movement and the sight of one very angry, very naked, fey pointing at him imperiously.

"You, fetch some clothes for myself and my _hellra_. Something warm, furs for her. Leathers for me." Another apparent servant appeared and House pointed imperiously at her next. "You, arrange a maid for the Lady Arctis and an interview with my mother. _Now!"_ Cuddy jumped when the door slammed hard enough to make her ears pop and House whirled to face her.

"Who caught us?" He demanded and Cuddy blinked. Truth be told she was still having a little trouble getting her brain to work after the way he had kissed her senseless a few seconds ago. Her fingers traced over the metal of the collar around her neck and she slid from the bed padding to a huge silver mirror in the corner of the room. She peered at it in her reflection and jumped when he loomed behind her. "Cuddy," his tone had gentled considerably. "I know your rational little brain is probably combusting right now, but you need to tell me who caught us."

"I didn't see any of their faces." She confessed. "The only name I heard was…Hengest." She hazarded a guess. House turned away from her with a violent movement and swore explosively.

"Interfering bastard!" He uttered in English and crossed the room once more when there came a hesitant knock. He threw open the door and snatched something leather from the offering hands of a petite white haired woman. She arched a brow over steely grey eyes and House turned away from her, pulling on the black leather trousers without a care and lacing them with impatient jerking movements. Cuddy had to admit that she was more than a little sorry to now be seeing so little of him, but she looked away when those predatory eyes of his rose to meet hers.

It wasn't that she was frightened of him in this new…skin. He had always been intimidating. Taller, bigger, stronger and scarier than her since she had first met him but she had always known that he would never seriously harm her in any way…just as she knew it now.

"Get her dressed, warmly, and keep her here." House directed this to the apparent maid and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Cuddy demanded. Reaching out for him and dropping her hand sharply when he turned to see it. His eyes stroked over her across the room and something almost pained crossed his face before the walls came down once more.

"I'm going to get us out of here. Don't talk to anyone aside from Mari here and, most importantly, don't tell anyone your name." He took the embroidered jacket that Mari thrust at him and shrugged it on. It was high collared and full sleeved, a deep ice blue colour with a midnight velvet body covered in golden swirling designs cavorting over the fabric. He half buttoned it in his hurry and left it open over his broad chest. Dragging on a pair of knee high black leather boots completed the odd if completely delectable outfit admirably.

Cuddy was swept by the sudden urge to remove it all from him once more and drag him back to bed. The collar seemed to throb at her throat and the string pulsed. Cuddy yelped in surprise when the diamond and gold string snapped up and away from her body. House's arm jerked, the cuff's chain reacting the same way, spanning the distance between them and glowing brighter than the candles dotted around the room. Mari's eyebrows shot up and House stared at the string with that same grim expression on his face.

"Aw hell." He snarled before spinning on his heel and storming out of the room with another ear clapping slam from the door.

The mysterious connection between them snapped and Cuddy staggered back, blinking in surprise and steadying herself against the mirror.

"Well," the aged Mari said on a bright sigh. "I suppose we'd better get you dressed for the good Knight shall we?"

Cuddy turned to look at her, feeling as if she'd just been caught in the blow back from some kind of explosion.

"Knight?"

**Sinister Scribe**

House strode through the stone corridors, the pale light of white flame torches high in their sconces was the only source of illumination. His boot heels clomped along the corridor in long angry ground-eating strides. The other fey in the corridor gave him a wide berth. They backed away towards the walls, ducking their heads and curtseying. His horns and eyes gleamed with a dull glow and anger rolled off him in waves. He strode down the corridor, taking left and right twists with seeming impunity. His photographic memory never having forgotten a step, a twist in the trail or even a tapestry on the walls.

Everything was polished to a high sheen. Magic and mortal slaves having been ensorcelled into scrubbing every surface of the corridors until they reflected shimmering images of those who walked through them. A faint greenish blue glow emanated from crystal detailing in the archways and the glimmering frames of the stained glass windows looking out over harsh frozen landscape. He stopped for a moment, staring out the window, and sighed.

It finally washed over him how long it had been.

Exactly how long he had been exiled from his home. His natural habitat. The place where he had felt most comfortable, where he had been his true self and he had been thrown out because his pride wouldn't allow him to bow to his Queen.

Queen Maab of the Unseelie Court. Beautiful, immortal and probably one of the most dangerous beings in the Inner Realms. She was as wicked as she was clever and no one ever got out of a deal with Maab.

Not alive anyway.

His jaw tightened and the anger that had been bleeding away at the sight of the harsh beauty of the winter realm flared once more hot and high in his chest. The dragon flexed over his muscles in simmering response. He looked down at his shirt and yanked it open with a harsh flick of his wrist. Dragon flexed higher and harder, his fiery mane glowing now. House rolled his head on his neck with a popping sound and then strode to the nearest door. He threw it open and stalked inside. Prowling along the racks until he reached what he was looking for. His hand slid over the hilt like he was shaking hands with an old friend. He lifted the sword from the stand on which it had been kept and unsheathed the long thin blade with a shining hiss of the white metal. The golden flames had etched into the blade had been kept polished and oiled. He weighed the heft of the rapier in his hand, double checking the balance. Still perfect. Even after twenty years. He had changed a little but the sword had not. It was still his.

He belted it low around his hips and double checked the way it rode against his thigh. Resting his fingers against the cool golden weight of the pommel soothed him and he strode once more out of the room. The sword seemed to anchor him a little, stemming the rapidly rising tide of rage swelling in him. He still powered along the passageways, his stride was still long, the set of his shoulders still arrogant, but the control had been brought back. That ruthless edge to him that had the other occupants of the fortress actively seeking places elsewhere when he approached.

He bared his teeth in a ruthless smile. It was good to be back. He approached the main hall without ever once breaking stride. The guard at the door, two silver clad knights with long spears and short swords belted at their hips hesitated when they saw him but finally crossed spears to impede his progress when it became clear he wasn't stopping.

"The Queen is in session." One spoke and House stared him down.

"Yeah, I know, with me." He batted the spears away with a small pulse of magic bursting from his fingertips. He made a note to get a better handle on that. He had never been very good at the finesse and light shows of Summer court magic that he had inherited from his father and twenty years out of practice hadn't helped in the slightest. The spears flew apart as if electrified and the knights dropped them and backed away, recognising a dominant when they saw one, they wordlessly stepped aside and allowed him passage.

The doors to the great hall of Arctis Tor flew open with a howling rush of wind and a flash of fiery energy and the Winter Knight, most feared fighter of all fey courts, stepped through them for the first time in over twenty years. His exile nothing but a bitter memory and the look on his face promising an extraction of payment for such punishment from all involved. He strode across the polished crystalline floor, stepped up on one of the empty chairs and onto the long obsidian table that ran the length of the room. His boots crushed crystal goblets, silver platters and succulent food alike as he prowled the length of the table. His sword leapt to his hand in a whirl of movement faster than even Immortal eyes could track and the white blade burst to flaming life in a crackle of orange energy.

He reached the end of the table, feet braced wide and glared arrogantly down at the two sat there. The woman at the head, in her throne of obsidian and ice seemed both surprised and outraged at such an interruption to her meal and the man at her side sat back, his human skin paling as the flaming sword tip was levelled at his throat.

House looked down into a face that reflected his own. How he would have looked had he been human. The face that he had used as his own in the mortal world for the last two decades. The wrinkles were not as pronounced and the hair had a touch more steel but a human in the faerie courts was expected to flourish and die quickly. This was the mortal House had been switched with as an infant. His mother had turned him Changeling rather than raise him herself so she'd had one of her minions steal into a military base in Washington and switch her child, her immortal baby for the human sitting to the Queen's right hand.

House had grown up in a human world, weakened by iron and starved of magic so this…this…_shadow_ of him could have everything that was rightfully his until his father had finally rescued him. Had finally brought him to the Inner Realm where he was supposed to be. His mortal parents _still_ didn't know what he was.

House took care to nick his 'brother's' skin with the tip of his sword. The bead of blood singed along the blade with a hiss and evaporated to steam with a smirk of satisfaction from the irate fey on the table.

"Arctis Knight, what a pleasant surprise." Maab intoned in bored elocution. "Care to elaborate as to why you're here pointing a sword at my son." Her smile was as cold as it was cruel and even now, House felt the sting at her rejection. At her favour of this adopted child over him, her own blood. House sneered at her.

"The human dragged me back here and chased me across the Wilderness with his little guard. No warning, no explanation, just blood." House stabbed a little and the human winced and jerked in his chair. There was nowhere for him to go though. He was pressed as far back as he could get from House. It was odd to see his own face twisted in pain and for once not be feeling any of it. Anger roared in him and the dragon surged on his skin, growing bigger, throwing off light, it covered him from collar bone to navel now and was clawing further over his flesh. The skin it was covering actually turning to blackened scales with flickering bursts of flame flaring here and there.

"I think it's time we had it out. Then I'm going to go."

"Troy had nothing to do with you being brought here." Maab sighed as if speaking to a particularly small and stupid child.

"And this stops me from killing him…why?" House demanded. Looking down on the queen and knowing the dangerous game he was playing. Few got to be so bold and all of them paid for it afterward anyway.

"I wanted you here." Maab said suddenly. House's sword arm relaxed infinitesimally, the light reflected off the cuff on his wrist and his brow arched. This he had to hear.

"What for? The last time I was here the only thing you wanted me for was an attack dog."

"It seems I have a use for you once more." Maab shrugged almost congenially.

The sword tip inched away from Troy's throat. "In return for what?"

Maab's smile was knowing. "The life of your mortal, of course."

House took the sword away from Troy's throat and stepped down from the table. Being careful to jostle his 'brother' healthily as he did so. He sheathed his sword the flames dying away and the greenish glow once more dominated as the light source in the room. His dragon remained writhing and dominant over his skin but he stared hard at Maab, his expression as cold and hard as the ice of her throne.

"Start talking." He said.

**Sinister Scribe**

"Okay, I admit defeat." Cuddy looked down at herself with a sigh. "Turns out I actually can't dress myself."

"Come here, child." Mari spoke indulgently.

Cuddy edged around the woven screen. It was made of dark wood and painted silk panels. She held the fur up to her chest again and sidled looked at Mari with an expression of absolute dejection on her face. She held up the…she thought it was a skirt. "I don't even know what this is, you realise."

"I'd forgotten how uptight mortals can be about clothing." Mari set her embroidery aside and crossed the room to see to her charge. Mari was an older woman, built along the lines of a silver swan. All long limbs and graceful lines. She wore a simple silver silk sheath with silver bracelets and anklets to set it off, her hair coiled up on top of her head shone brightly in the candle light. Her accent was faintly Scottish, Cuddy thought and she behaved with simple practicality that seemed to shirk nonsense and hysteria like water off a duck's back.

Mari whipped Cuddy's fur, and her modesty, away with a single industrious movement. Cuddy yelped at being suddenly very naked in front of a complete stranger. Mari ignored any embarrassment on the younger woman's part and, instead, set about her job of dressing her. The long swath of material that Cuddy had been holding was wrapped and folded around her in an intricate manner that made Cuddy's head hurt when she tried to remember how it was done. The impossibly soft feeling silk was a northern lights of colours. Deep midnight blue with highlights of green, blue, gold, orange, copper, silver, crimson and rose pink shimmering and sliding over it like oil in water. The entire thing was secured with silver silky rope that looked suspiciously similar to the long manes of the unicorns the knights had been riding.

The final effect was of being nearly naked while having the essentials covered. The dress was completely backless right down to the dimples above the swell of her ass. The neckline was a halter-neck style but open right down to a hand span below her navel and the skirt was slit high up to the hip on her right side.

Mari drew her to the mirror and sat her forcefully down in front of it.

"Now the hair."

"Uh…okay. Is House really a knight?" Cuddy fished for something normal to say. She still wasn't entirely convinced that this wasn't some sort of concussion induced hallucination. Maybe she was lying under her desk at the hospital having just hit her head on a falling mountain of paperwork or something.

"Yes, he is Knight Arctis to the Queen herself." Mari tilted her head and brushed Cuddy's thick dark hair with a careful hand. Cuddy felt a little odd being waited on like this, but her need for information overrode her need for normalcy. She wanted to know where she was and why? Not to mention who the hell House was underneath…everything.

"What does that mean?"

Mari was braiding Cuddy's hair and twisting silvery silk around the pleats to keep them in place. Drawing her hair back from her face and letting it tumble freely down her back.

"He is…what do you children say? An assassin."

Ice trailed down Cuddy's spine.

"What?"

"He is a duellist. A fierce lad. There is no other better with a blade, not even his brother."

"Brother?" Cuddy croaked.

"Yes, Troy, raised by her Maab. A spoiled brat, he is not the true prince. That title rightfully belongs to the Knight Arctis." Mari continued blithely and Cuddy was getting that familiar feeling of the bottom falling out of her world once more.

"Prince?" She squeaked.

"Yes, he would have been, had Maab not sent him away to the mortal realm. He was a changeling child, poor lad, he didn't deserve that. It was her own stupid fault for getting knocked up by the Summer King anyway. Aye, he was a sorry state when he finally got here. Half alive from iron poisoning, no magic to him. Only thing that saved him from immediate execution was the brand that his father had given him." Mari gestured to her shoulder. "You know, that wee gecko he's got painted on him. It wriggles when he's fashed about something."

"Uh." Was all Cuddy could manage. Words were whirling in her head and the normalcy of getting dressed and having her hair brushed had been swamped by the tidal wave of sheer incredulity of what Mari was saying.

"Well, I suppose it's alright now. He's got his _hellra_, the exile's been lifted and I think he's down in the throne room getting rid of that Troy brat as we speak."

Cuddy made a very small, very strangled sound.

"Up ye get, lass. That's it, here are yer shoes." Mari helped her into a pair of blue silk and crystal heeled slippers that rang out like bells against the polished stone floor. "There, all done, ye look bonnie."

"Thank you." Cuddy answered automatically.

"Now, you wait here. I'm sure he'll be back in a while. I have to get back to my Mikhail. You'll be alright?"

Cuddy nodded and then reached out towards Mari's neck. "You have one too."

"Oh, the collars? Yes, we've all got them, dear." Mari smiled kindly and patted Cuddy's hand.

"We?" Cuddy questioned and Mari turned back to her, having reached the door.

"Yes, dear, all the pets have them. Shows who we belong to in court. Stops any misunderstandings that way." She opened the door and stepped out of it, not seeing the look of shock register on Cuddy's face. "Bye now!"

Cuddy stared at the doors for a full five minutes, not moving, not thinking, scarcely breathing. Her shaking fingers traced over the cold metal and jewels of the collar. She couldn't get it off. She'd already tried. There were no clasps or joins. No way for her to remove it without probably removing her head first. The diamond and gold string bounced between her breasts as she jostled it once more in the vain hope that it had weakened since then.

Pet.

She was a pet to a faerie, assassin prince.

Cuddy strode to the door and threw it open. Nobody questioned her in the corridor though a few eyed the colours she was wearing with interest and stepped aside with a bow of deference. Cuddy swallowed hard, her heels chiming musically in a staccato tempo over the stone passageway floors. Her stride lengthened and she gripped her skirt to raise the hem to allow for the extra movement.

Soon she was running, panic flaring hot and high in her chest.

Once she started running, though, she couldn't stop.


	5. Doubles and Broken Rules

Doubles and Doppelgangers

**Hola, kiddies, first update in forever I know a bit of jealous House here, a bit of nympho Cuddy and some bishi faeries too. **

**So I should have satisfied just about everyone in this chapter, I know it cuts off kinda sudden but that's the way it has to be to let the next chapter fall right. **

**Read and review me, kids, you know you wanna!**

**Doubles and Broken Rules**

"Out of the way!"

Faeries and mortals alike leaped aside as the Knight Arctis barrelled through the corridors of the winter fortress of Arctis Tor. He cut an impressive figure. All of him long lean lines moving with a fluid grace. His shirt billowed back from his sculpted dragon marked chest and his long leather clad legs ate up the distance as he sprinted through the hallways. One hand was on the hilt of his sword, but every single muscle in him bunched and flexed in forward movement. He threw himself up the twisting staircase and along the final corridor to his suite, servants staggering out of his way and exchanging speculative glances in his wake. He finally reached the door to his quarters and released the wards on it with a single gesture from his hand. He ploughed inside the room and slid to a halt on booted feet.

"Cuddy?" House scanned the interior of his bedroom. Nothing. He strode across the room and poked his horned head into the bathroom. Nil. His heels clipped the floor sharply as he crossed to the panelled doors and threw them open to prowl out onto the frost rimed balcony. She wasn't there either.

House crossed back to the door and leaned out of it with a bellow.

"MARI!" His voice travelled far in the stone hallways and a silvery tone replied before the echo had even dulled.

"Milord?"

House twitched violently in surprise and whirled when his eyes landed on Mari. The white dressed woman stood with her hands folded neatly in front of her. House gripped her shoulders in a gross breach of ethics, but he didn't care about courtly manners right now, he cared about finding Cuddy before his brother did.

"Where's the Lady Arctis, Mari? Tell me you took her to see the gardens or something equally as insipid."

Mari blinked in surprise. "She doesn't await you, Milord?" Mari frowned at something so preposterous. "I left her here as per your instruction, Milord. Though she did seem quiet when I left to see to my _hellren_."

"Quiet?" House straightened and spun away with nervous energy. He looked up and down the corridors of the tower and tried to decide which way she would have gone. If she even had gone willingly. His hand tunnelled through his thick hair. "The woman's never been quiet in her life…what did you say to her?"

"Nothing, milord…"

"Enough with the 'milords'!" House snarled and forcibly controlled himself when Mari arched a brow at him and stepped back as if his ill manners might be contagious. "Just tell me the last thing you said to her."

Mari looked into the middle distance a moment as she recollected what exactly had been said.

"She asked about the collar, Mi…Knight Arctis." Mari corrected herself at the last moment.

"The col…what did you say to her about it? Did you tell her what it was for?!" House was on the verge of grabbing the woman and shaking her until her teeth rattled but he restrained himself in, what he thought, was an admirable fashion.

"Yes, I told her that all the pets wore them."

House blinked at her and waited.

"That's all?" He said after a moment. "You just called her a pet you didn't mention…anything else that the collar can do?"

"No, milord, just that it showed your ownership of her."

"Oh, yeah, that's gonna go over _real_ well…" House looked down the corridor and tried to sense which way Cuddy had gone. He was fairly attuned to her energies having spent six days a week in her close proximity for the last eight years. Still, at least she only thought it was a glorified dog collar. There was hope yet. Left, she would have gone left. He could smell the feint trace of her perfume, that scent that was uniquely her. He turned back to Mari with one last question.

"And you haven't seen Princep Troy?"

Mari barely restrained her look of disdain but shook her head mutely instead of aggravating the Knight Arctis with another 'milord'.

"Good, if he turns up…spike his tea or something." He scrubbed a hand over his jaw and headed down the corridor after the elusive trail of his _hellra. _

**Sinister Scribe**

Cuddy burst through the huge doors and bent at the waist, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She planted her hands on her knees and tried to recoup. Her heart hammered in her chest, sweat beaded on her brow and panic still simmered under her skin like an infectious terror. Her breath clouded in front of her and she finally registered the cold when she lifted her head and found herself in some kind of garden.

Cuddy's eyes widened and she felt her distress ebb under wonder as she gazed over the amazing splendour of the niche of paradise spread out before her. The air smouldered from between her lips and she straightened, barely registering the cold, more interested in trying to swallow up every last detail of the garden. Purple trees arced overhead in a natural cathedral, blue roses with blood red thorns formed briars of partitions to the icy hued flowers, oddly crystalline flourishing in the freezing weather, sculpted statues of perfectly clear glassy ice cavorted around the garden in stunning realism. If Cuddy hadn't known better she would have said they were real people that had been turned to ice and…did she know better?

Cuddy felt the sticky cloying feel of the panic rise up in her throat again like bile and swallowed it down as best she could. She would not lose control again. She was beginning to realise just how large this fortress was, just how alien its people were and just how without friends she really was. She needed House, she needed him because he knew more about this place than she did…nothing to do with the way he had kissed her, she assured herself. She had to find her way back to him. Hysteria was all well and good, but she had the uncomfortable feeling that, if she indulged herself in it, she might well end up dead because of it.

And that wasn't really on her list.

Cuddy rubbed her hands on her dress, which had survived her mad dash surprisingly well, and looked about the garden. She turned back to the huge obsidian doors she had come through and found them immovably shut.

"Damn it." She thumped her head against them for good measure and swore to herself for a moment before deciding to go and look for another way out of here. It was unlikely that there was only one exit…she hoped. She turned around and nearly leapt out of her skin when she found herself within three inches of two of the most stunningly beautiful men she had ever seen. She jerked back and thumped against the door with a clatter to her head, wincing at the blow she gathered herself and swallowed hard. They watched her as silently as they had approached and Cuddy took a moment to look them over.

Oh my…

They were completely identical.

Twins.

Sex god twins.

They were both tall, over six feet, with pale, pale, skin, stormy lilac eyes and blood red hair that hung straight as a sheet down their backs to their waists. They both wore brocaded jackets with long tails and gold stitching on the cuffs and lapels, leather trousers though on was black and the other white, and bare muscle sculpted chests. They had the Celtic knot designs tattooed on their long pointed ears and half smirks on their full lips. They looked like they had just strolled off the cover of the Tolkein edition of GQ and they were looking for a tasty morsel to amuse themselves with for a while.

Cuddy inhaled sharply and tried to ignore the heady spice of their scent as it rolled off them.

"Hi." She started off lamely.

"Good morrow, Milady." One of them bowed deeply and his twin mimicked the gesture exactly with a half-second delay. It was freaky as hell.

Definitely not human.

"My name is Sean, and this is my brother Leon. May I trouble you as to ask why you are in the Garden unescorted?"

Cuddy rallied herself. They didn't seem so bad, she took Sean's hand and shook it firmly with her no-nonsense handshake. The one she used on young money-rich, intellect poor donors who thought they were going to get into her pants just because they were paying up for her hospital.

"I'm Doctor…" House's warning about her name chimed in at the last second and she said the first thing that came into her head. "…House." She just hoped the bastard never heard that she had borrowed his name for a short while.

"Doctor, odd name." Sean murmured against her knuckles as he twisted her hand in his grip so he could lift her fingers to his lips.

"She is beautiful, is she not, brother?" Leon purred and stroked a finger down Cuddy's cheek. Cuddy jerked back from him and felt a frisson of alarm when Sean would not release her hand.

"Be calm, Lady House. We will do nothing to harm you."

"Unless you bid us to." Leon cut in with a spark in his purple eyes.

"It is simply that a charming lady, such as yourself, should not be alone in the garden. Dangerous things lurk unchained in this part of the fortress. The Queen does so like her sharp little toys." Sean said smooth as silk, but there was an undercurrent to his words that set Cuddy on edge. She was beginning to feel that something was very wrong here.

Sean pulled her away from the door and draped his arm around her waist, Cuddy realised it would be pointless to try and pull away and settled for trying to clear her head of their spicy cologne. She felt a little fuzzy around the edges, like the beginnings of drunkenness. Leon's arm slipped around her waist from the other side and his face dipped down to her neck, inhaling deeply.

"She smells of nectar, brother." He breathed and lapped his tongue up the column of Cuddy's throat to nibble gently on her ear. "Let's have her now."

"Patience, what about this?" Sean jingled the chain and collar at Cuddy's neck. The same collar that Leon had staunchly been ignoring.

"It isn't a chastity belt." Leon pouted and Cuddy moaned softly in the back of her throat. Some part of her mind was screaming, but she was swimming in molasses. So sticky sweet and cloying that she was drowning. She could no longer tell which way was up and which way was down and part of her no longer cared. She was snared in sheer physical desire. Her body _wanted_ like it had never done before. It was like her natural attraction to two fine male specimens had been injected with a truck full of steroids. She was aware that these two…men (for the lack of a better word) were dangerous, but she couldn't summon the words out of her throat to tell them to stop. She was limp and lissom in their arms and only grumbled faintly when Leon's hand slid under her dress and trailed over her ribs and up to cup the weight of her breast, his thumb swirled over her nipple and Cuddy jerked in his hold, another moan leaking from her lips.

"Listen to her, 'fuck me' in a thousand ways but words, hmm?" Sean agreed with his brother, his interest blatant against Cuddy's lower back as he pressed up against her, his hands sliding around her hips and under the slit of her dress to dip between her thighs.

Cuddy's back arched and she tried to remember why she had that niggling negative in the back of her head. Rich material ripped under her hands when she gripped Leon's jacket and twisted violently. The rope gaped at her neck and the silky liquid material of her dress slithered down over her chest and bared her to the waist. Leon's hungry mouth descended on her flesh like he was starved of it and Cuddy keened her nails raking down the side of his face. Sean gripped her neck and tilted her head back, using the braids in her hair as a handhold, his mouth took hers and his tongue slid against hers.

Cuddy squirmed, not for the urge for it to stop, she was past that now, but for the urge for it to get better. She realised, somewhere, that her rational mind had taken a lunch break and the purely primal sensual part of her was firmly in the driving seat. The only problem was that Sensual Cuddy wanted them to switch up a gear and get to the really good stuff. This was all well and good, but it was kids stuff. She wanted, no, _needed_ more than what these two could give her and they didn't seem to be quite aware of this yet. She gripped Sean's hair and yanked him back from her mouth, panting hard and she tried to remember how to speak again.

"I need…" She gasped, her eyes glassy, biting back moans from what Leon was still doing to her nipples. No human could do that with their tongue.

"What do you need, love, your wish is ours to grant." Sean smiled down at her, stroking her hair and Cuddy would have snorted in amusement if she'd been able to summon the cognitive capacity. This underwear model thought he could satisfy her? he should go back to being a breathing clothes rack, him and his brother.

"I need…" God, she couldn't say his name, not his human one anyway. They probably wouldn't even know who she was talking about. She squirmed between them and tried to think of a way to communicate what she desired. What had Mari called him…?

"I need the Knight Arctis." She finally choked out and both twins froze, staring at her like she had grown another head.

"_Wish. Granted."_ A terrible voice grated from behind them and Leon gave a tiny high pitched squeal as he was snatched by the scruff of his neck and launched skyward.

Sean had perhaps a quarter of a second to contemplate his impending hurt before a fist slammed into his beautiful face and neatly smashed his nose clean out of joint.

House was on them both like a rabid animal. He dragged Sean by his long shampoo commercial hair to within beating's distance of his brother and settled into a rage venting brawl that would see both of them wincing for weeks. His fists hammered down until he was splattered with blood and then he unhooked his sheathed sword from his belt and smashed that across their quailing forms as well. Immortals can take a helluva beating, House would know that better than most. His mercy had up and evaporated when he had seen Cuddy, _his_ Cuddy, as the filling in their pretty boy manwich. Every worry, every iota of his rage, every particle of his envy at not being the owner of the hands or lips sliding over Cuddy's silky skin was meted out tenfold onto the Leahnen Sidhe twins cowering under his fierce blows.

Sex fae. Lust mongers. Parasitic energy suckers.

Not with _HIS hellra._

"Please! Please, Milord!" Sean screamed, high pitched and terrified. They had both been raised watching House cut down duelling opponents with ruthless efficiency and grace and they had never been more in awe or terrified of him. They had also made it their personal mission to stay extremely out of his way.

"Mercy, we didn't know she was yours!" Leon whimpered and cowered under upraised arms.

"You knew she belonged to _someone!" _House spat and walloped the scabbard of his sword over the pair of them once more. "Even the Queen doesn't ignore THOSE rules!"

"Please! We were about to stop!"

"Honest!"

"Yes, she didn't react like the others!"

"Sean's right, the chemistry wasn't right."

"The energies were blocked."

"Oh, so NOW she's defective?!" House gripped them both by the fancy collars of their pompous prissed up jackets and yanked them to within inches of his face.

"No! Of course not! She's just more…"

"Attuned to you, than we thought possible." Leon finished for his brother when Sean realised they were in a deeper hole than they'd thought possible.

"Mmmm…House…"

House turned to look over his shoulder and his gut lurched when he saw Cuddy lying prone on the snow frosted ground. Her dress was bunched around her waist, her nipples peaked against the cool air and with the sensory stimulant that her system was saturated with from the twins, her back was arched and she had one hand stretched out towards him. She moaned again and House decided to cut this little meeting short. He needed to see how badly she had been affected.

"Scram." He ordered the twins and the pair of them kicked up flurries of snow in their haste to be places elsewhere.

House straightened and belted his sword at his hip again and turned to speak to Cuddy before something flew through the air and slammed into his chest. For a moment, the fight or flight dial was still stuck on fight, until a hot mouth sealed itself to his own and Cuddy thrust her tongue against his.

House wrapped his arms around her naked back and held her close as her arms and legs twined around him tighter than an ivy creeper. Her fingers delved into his hair and gripped his horns, pleasure scored down his spine and pooled in his groin. Cuddy purred and mewled in pleasure, grinding her hips hard against his. He staggered forward, lust hammering through his veins and making his legs weak. They crashed against the wall and Cuddy gasped at the push of the hard brand of his cock against her hot centre.

"You," she panted against his mouth, thrusting her pelvis against his, "inside me."

House groaned against her and kissed deeper.

Cuddy threw back her head and he nipped at her neck, the collar pulsed around her throat and her urgency racked up a few notches.

"Now, Greg!"


	6. Fights and Friends

Screams and Curses

**Due to popular demand I thought I'd better get my finger out and finally update this sucker. I'm DETERMINED to get Prank 2 Far done next, but you might be waiting a while for that one.**

**I watched the first episode of House season five the other day. **

**Words cannot EXPRESS, how much of a sucky episode it was. **

**House was a pain in the ass, Wilson's a whiny little bitch, the patient deserves a good kicking and STILL there is no Huddy. **

**I find myself asking what the point is. This is why I haven't been updating. I think I'm going off the whole House schtick…which makes it mighty difficult to be updating anything when you can't stand the bloody characters. **

**My life is depressing enough without watching a freaking programme about it. House had better hurry up and redeem himself and David Shore had better not ruin it or I'm going out with my rib-extractors and making myself a new hat. **

**Reviews…or **_**else!**_

…

_**Have a nice day!! **_

**Fights and Friends**

The private door to the chambers of the Knight Arctis banged open and an oddly shaped beast stumbled through the doorway. With a low feminine groan, part of the beast detached itself and revealed itself to be a writhing mortal woman. The other half was all male fey. His horns had lengthened and straightened standing upwards from his skull, his eyes crackled blue lightening and the dragon tattoo on his chest writhed with latent energy that could barely be contained.

Cuddy had both arms wrapped around his neck and both legs cinched tight around his slim hips. The journey back to the chamber had passed unnoticed to her. She had been more intent in getting her hands inside his shirt and pants than noticing the shocked stares of the passing gentry in the hallway at the sight of the Knight Arctis entangled with his half-naked mortal. She moaned into his mouth, her tongue tangled with his, enjoying his spicy taste. She couldn't get enough of him. Her skin was molten, on fire where they touched and arid where they didn't. She needed him on her more than she needed to breathe and she wasn't shy about making her needs known either.

House had been forced to stop no less than seven times to convince her that a corridor was not a suitable venue for what she had in mind. Cuddy hadn't been all that fussed, she hadn't seen the problem with the garden either, but she had allowed him to carry her this far. So long as she wasn't forced to wait any long, she didn't much care.

They crossed the room and crashed down onto the massive fur lined bed. Cuddy purred at the feeling of the velvet soft pelts against her back and the heat of her man at her front. She ripped his shirt from him, fine fabrics and embroidery parting with a rending tear under her hands. The collar pulsed at her throat, throbbing in time with the ache in her womb. She needed him to fill it.

Now!

"Now?" She was wriggling out of her dress, finally ridding herself of the obstructive material. He arched over her, muscle roped arms flexing powerfully. She loved it, all that masculine strength _trembling_ with the urge to be inside her. Her fingers skated down his sides, gripping his sword belt as a handle and using it to haul his hips down against hers. Her head kicked back on a moan, collar catching the light of the flickering candles, she ground against the hard length of his cock. "Please?" She'd never begged before, swore she wouldn't start with him, but that had been before and now it was all different.

He kissed her again. Fiercely. Pouring everything he had into the duelling of lips and tongues and then he pulled back, teeth gritted, scrabbling for control he feared he didn't have.

"Greg…!" Her nails scored down his chest in a perfect ten of impatience. "Now!"

"No." He gripped her wrists in his large hands and pinned them over her head. "We can't."

For a moment she was stunned…then annoyed. A low growl issued from her throat, legs tightening around his hips, pulling him closer, reminding him that certain parts of his anatomy weren't on board with the 'no' plan.

"No?"

He shook his head hard, panting for breath, resisting the urge to take her. It wasn't a weak urge, he'd never wanted someone more in his entire life. Mortal passions ran deep, it was the reason the fey liked them so much, the reason they toyed with them, and the reason they invariably ruined them.

"I know, it seems like a really excellent idea right now, but even I won't take you when you're drugged like this." She keened her displeasure.

"You've had me before. What's the difference now?" She wrenched against his hold but he was immovable. Need clawed at her, she wanted him desperately, fire filled her veins and singed her skin. Her blood had thickened to honey, every sensation was heightened, even the smell of him was delicious forbidden foreplay. "Please…it hurts." Her hips rolled up against his and he shut his eyes, back bowing his head coming down to rest in the valley between her breasts. He groaned. Trembling with the urge to have her. He swallowed, his tongue tracing over his lips and savouring the taste of her. It would be hurting her but it would end up hurting her more if he was to take her.

"Cuddy," he lifted his head and met her lust drunk gaze. "Lisa, you don't understand. Fey and mortals can't just _have _each other. Not casually."

"Do I look…casual to you?" She panted, magnificent breasts heaving and he tore his eyes away with an effort. He. Could. Not!

"No, but if I take you, like this." His free hand drifted down her naked body and his fingers slipped between her thighs. Her head kicked back and she writhed on the bed with a strangled sound leaking from between her kiss swollen lips. "Then we can't go back. I'll have ruined you for any other man."

"I'll be broken if you don't!" She was desperate for him. He could feel it and it tore at him to refuse her but this was for her own good. He had hurt whomever he had touched all his life and he would not allow himself to do it to her. Not just for his own pleasure. Not even if she begged him.

"You won't be able to go home!" He was nearly shouting at her now. On the knife edge himself. Every molecule of his body was screaming at him to get inside her. To stay there for as long as possible.

She finally stopped squirming at that last and his head ducked down, resting against her flushed skin once more. Waiting for the inevitable order for him to leave her. No woman, especially not her, would chose him, bastard human and ostracised fey, over her beloved career and the hospital she spent every waking moment in. She panted under him and his hand released hers and fisted in the sheets, waiting for her to crawl out from under him.

Her hands came down on his shoulders, slid over his neck, lifted his head until they were looking at each other once more. He still shook, the near overpowering urge to take her rocked him once more, so violently that he actually tilted forward against her and had her biting her lip against the brush of contact between them. Her hands moved up again, stroking his ears and into his hair, she pulled at him, pulling him up, over her supine body until their mouths were a breath apart.

"I don't care." She whispered against his lips and then devoured him in a fierce kiss.

"You'll regret this in the morning." He told her between worshipping kisses along her jaw line to her ear and then down over the column of her throat.

"I didn't regret it the first time." She arched under his contact. "It's doubtful I will this time."

He shut his eyes and cursed himself for what he was about to do. It would push her away for sure this time but he had to do it. He didn't have a noble bone in his body, but he would not ruin her. "There was no first time."

"What?" Her hips rolled up against his and he moved to the side so as not to torment himself with the blazing heat between them.

"It was a dream, something I planted in you to believe that we'd been together. You were determined to have me and I…I didn't want to hurt you. Not like this."

"House." She gripped his hair and yanked him up so he could look at her again. "Explain."

"I told you, if I take you then you'll be ruined for any other man. You'll be addicted to me for the rest of your life and I _won't _do that to you."

"Doesn't feel like it would be such a bad thing for me." Her hand slid south of the equator and she stroked his cock through his leathers. His back bowed and he growled in pleasure before reaching down and manacling her wrist in his grip.

"You forget I've been on the wrong side of addiction. I know what it can do to you. I know how it erodes everything you are until there's nothing worth being. You're just a worthless shell in need of being put down."

She stilled a little, still panting, still craving him like a drug but a little more lucid now. She cupped his cheek. "Is that what you think of yourself?"

He jerked back, shaking his head from her grip with a low growl. "No, it's what I know of myself." He made the decision without further thought, there was only one way out of this now. "I'll ease you now."

"House, no…" She saw the walls come down behind his eyes, saw him lock himself away deep inside his mind again and didn't want it to be that way between them. Not any more. Not now that she had seen his true self. His hand manacled her hands once more and pinned them to the mattress above her head, his mouth crashed down on hers, tongues tangling and his hand slid down her body, between her legs and his fingers delved inside her wet heat. She cried out into his mouth and he growled against her, kissing her fiercer. He slipped another finger inside her and bolts of pleasure slammed up her spine. It felt so right…

But so wrong at the same time.

It was good…but mechanical. There was no warmth to him, no emotion in the act he performed so intimately upon her body. She wriggled and tried to get him to respond, but she was no match for his strength and he simply deepened the kiss and twisted his fingers inside her until her rational brain shut down and she could do nothing but process the pleasure he assaulted her with. His thumb rolled over her clit and she thought she was going to black out it felt so good. Her spine arched and her thighs spread wider. His fingers thrust back and forth inside her, twisting and curling up towards her navel to rub that secret eye-rolling pleasure centre inside her.

He never broke the kiss. Not once, not all through his sensual attack and not even when she finally shattered in his arms and broke apart into mindless splinters of pleasured human quivering. The collar pulsed around her throat and amplified the pleasure so that she was battered from all sides by it like a buffeting storm of sweetened agony.

He finally tore his mouth from hers and uttered in a guttural growl. "_Sleep."_

She slumped unconscious almost immediately, lax in his arms, still flushed and twitching from the aftershocks of her orgasm. He looked down at her, propped on one elbow with a saddened expression on his face that no mortal could hope to understand. With regret, he ran one finger along the sweep of her striking cheek bone, smearing through the single tear that tracked down the slope. He swallowed the last taste of her and heaved out a breath, rolling to his feet and adjusting his leathers as comfortably as he could. He adjusted her so that her naked body was kept warm beneath the fur pelts of the bed and whistled sharply for Jack and Daniels.

They trotted into the room at his call, Jack had Coke held gently in her powerful jaws and he petted all their golden spotted heads, stroking them and taking a little comfort in their glossy fur.

"Stay with her. Keep her safe…avoid her temper when she wakes up." He asked of them and leant down to whisper. "Trust me on that one, she's scary when she wants to be." He confided in the closest thing he had to family on this side of the Divide and watched them bound up onto the bed, each cat taking a side of Cuddy and Jack promptly dropped Coke into the crook of Cuddy's elbow to snuggle between their body heat.

Jealousy rocked him and he knew he had no one to blame but himself. He snatched up his sword, a fresh shirt and barrelled from his quarters before he could change his mind. He headed for the war rooms.

He had some energy to work out of his system.

**Sinister Scribe**

The wooden practice blade whistled through the air and slapped hard against House's arm. His teeth bared in a snarl when the blow was hard enough to split his skin. Blood trickled down one marble skinned limb and he switched sword hands as easily as you like. His returning blow had the hilt of his own wooden blade cracking against the young fey's temple and sending him crashing to one knee. House's booted foot kicked up and smashed into his jaw sending him sprawling backwards.

The second opponent he was fighting wasted no time when House's back was turned and launched himself at the older fey with a battle cry spilling from between his lips. House spun but to slow to dodge out of the way, instead he caught the boy in his arms, ducking under the sword range and too close to hit with the blade. His head lashed forward and the base of his horns smacked into the soft cartilage of a perfect nose and crunched it neatly. House spun and whirled the boy out of his hold to send him sprawling to the floor.

House stood, slicked with sweat, covered in bruises and bloodied. Stripped to the waist and with a feral look in his eyes. He whirled his practice blade and turned to the watching crowd.

"Next!" He barked while two medics scrambled forward and dragged the downed fey boys out of the way. They were young lower level fey, more physical magic than mental and in line to be the palace guardians one day. House thought they were only slightly less than pathetic. Obviously things had changed since he had learned his swordsmanship.

"Hold!"

The two young fey that had been about to step forward into the bull ring with House looked like they might just break down and cry with relief at the booming voice that stopped them in their tracks.

House spun on one heel and his scowl darkened to terrifying proportions. The dragon on his chest writhed and grew bigger, House's skin buckling and warping to form blackened scales where the tattoo covered him. He whirled his sword again.

"Hengest." The way he bared his teeth was nothing like a smile as he greeted the old sword-master. The fey was far older than House, perhaps as old as the fortress itself and maybe even as old as Maab. "Care for a sparring match?" House lifted his sword and pointed it tip first at the silver haired fey in an old challenge. The others murmured at the thinly veiled insult. There were a billion and one ways to insult in the faerie courts and, unsurprisingly, House knew them all.

"You're not sparring, Arctis. You're delivering beatings." Hengest was angry, he tugged at his cloak and cast it into the waiting hands of a mortal servant. His tunic followed next until he was stripped to the waist, in nothing but his leathers and his boots. His waist length silver hair was tied back and pleated with quick nimble fingers. He moved to unhook his sword and scabbard from his belt but House's wooden blade thunking into the sod of the practice room floor had him stilling.

House yanked his white fire sword from its scabbard and it promptly flamed to life before dulling to a low glow.

"Real blades, Hengest. You owe me that much."

"I could kill you." A worried expression crossed Hengest's face and, in that moment, he reminded House very much of Wilson. "I will not…"

Hengest did not get the time to finish his refusal before House pounced. He covered the ten foot distance between them with a single bound and lashed down with his sword and all his strength. Hengest barely lifted his still sheathed blade in time to save himself from being cleaved in two from sternum to stem. The blow flashed sparks and shrieked blades, the scabbard was slashed to ribbons and Hengest crashed to one knee under the onslaught. House leaned over him, teeth bared in a snarl, every muscle straining down over Hengest, pushing the blade further and further down towards Hengest's wide golden eye.

"Arctis, stop this…"

"You should never have touched her. She was _off_ limits!" House snarled, the tip of the blade slid a few inches over Hengest's brow and blue blood leaked from the wound. The trainees gasped and Hengest growled low in pain. The monster inside the old master beginning to stir.

Good, that was what House wanted. He wanted the fight. Bloody and horrible. Maybe if he hurt enough on the outside it would stop the torment inside.

"Enough!" Hengest roared and rushed upwards, his broad shoulders flexing and sending House skyward with his greater strength.

House flipped cat like in the air and landed in a neat crouch. He came up in time to parry the bone jarring thrust that Hengest aimed at his head. It was so strong that it rattled the blade into the side of his face and cut him from the eyebrow to his jaw line. Tell tale red blood dripped down the side of his face and over his neck in a lurid flag of colour. Hengest swung at him again and they settled into an impossibly fast exchange of blows. Young fey mouths fell open at the speed and strength of such an evenly matched pair. It was true that Hengest was the oldest and most powerful swordsman in the fortress…but the Knight Arctis was titled so for a reason. Hengest knew mercy and Arctis did not.

It was this that separated them. When Hengest gasped and flinched from pain, Arctis surged through it, seeming to thrive on it. There was an unholy fire that burned in his eyes. A fury that was both terrifying and magnificent to behold.

"I had no choice!" Hengest was saying, desperately battling away to prevent House from killing him without harming the other fey himself. "I was ordered…"

"You've long since outgrown the bonds of your contract!" House swivelled his sword mid swing and the flat of the blade stung against Hengest's flank. It was then that Hengest finally realised that this was not going to be to the death. He would have breathed a sigh of relief but his ribs had been fractured with that last blow. "You should have sent her back!" House switched sword hands to unleash a clenched fist into Hengest's jaw. The silver haired fey cried out and went sprawling to the ground. His blade skittered away across the floor.

"Maab, herself ordered it! Even you cannot refuse her!" Hengest rolled desperately to the side to avoid the stabbing of the flaming blade into the floor where his shoulder had been a second before.

"Not now that she has my _hellra _in her clutches!" House slashed to the side, sparks flying from the floor and blue blood arcing through the air when it sliced through the meat of Hengest's shoulder. Hengest snarled in pain and surged up in a last desperate attempt. His fist slammed into Arctis' thigh. His right thigh.

With a bellow of pain, he fell back, clutching at his leg. It was a low blow, literally, Hengest had not wished to employ it, but he could not be injured gravely now, for the Knight Arctis' own good. A sharp up-thrust of his foot had the white fire sword spinning from House's hand and thudding tip first into the floor with a shivering impact. House collapsed on one leg, clutching his scarred thigh. Hengest had seen the ugly wound and had known if House hadn't been an outcast before then he certainly would have been now for having such a glaring imperfection. While the wound was not crippling here, it was still a weakness, and all weaknesses are exploited in Arctis Tor.

"I did my duty!" Hengest hauled himself back to his feet and scrubbed at the sawdust clinging to the blood on his shoulder. He needed the wound cleaned before it got infected. "Which is more than you ever did!"

House lay panting on the ground, still clutching his leg. Agony had red sparking stars swimming in front of his eyes. Blackness wavered at the edge of his vision. His teeth were clenched against the searing pain and each breath left him in a panting hiss.

"That's the real problem isn't it?" He snarled up at Hengest. "That I didn't carry out your vaunted duties after you trained me." He panted a little more and rolled finally to a sitting position. He'd get up in a second, as soon as the world stopped spinning. "You trained me to be a good little (nngh!) Jedi, and didn't like it when your _beloved_ queen turned me into her attack dog."

"It matters little what I like or don't." Hengest muttered and turned away from him. "The fact of the matter is that you were a disappointment and always will be." Hengest forced himself to say the cruel words. He could not afford for the Knight Arctis to feel sympathy for him in the days to come. Hengest lifted his head high and strode for the door, passing one of the shining stained glass windows overlooking the gardens on his way. Right now, all he wanted was to go back to his room, have a hot bath with his hellra and try to forget how much of a bastard he was feeling right now.

Of course, the Knight Arctis would not make it that easy for him.

"Hey!"

Hengest turned and had time for his eyes to fly wide before House crashed into him in a spectacular flying tackle that sent them both reeling backwards and smashing through the window.

Rainbow hued glass splintered around them and they both plummeted towards the gardens below. Hengest gripped House hard around the shoulders and spun him hard so that he would land on the bottom. House didn't waste his time wondering about trifling things like that and instead smashed another punch into Hengest's jaw that snapped his head to the side and had him releasing House's shoulders.

The smashed into the ice covering the fountain in the queen's gardens and they both sank below the water. For an instant, the black waters were still, then they exploded upwards with twin roars of fury from the two battling fey. House lunged at Hengest, water flying around him, snow spiralling around them both. They smashed into each other like opposing forces of nature and the impact boomed throughout the garden. They grappled together, water sloshing thigh deep around them and snarls echoing between them.

Chest to chest, they battled for supremacy and both were vaguely aware that several of the nearby gentry and all of the trainees had followed them out into the garden to bear witness to the fight.

It was not a duel, no words of challenge had been issued, but the jury was still out on whether or not somebody was going to wind up dead.

Hengest finally gained the upper hand, his greater bulk allowing him better leverage with his lower centre of gravity. He wrapped his arms around House's chest and heaved with all his considerable strength, the dark fey male was lifted from the water, squirming, kicking and cursing a blue streak. He pounded bone rattling blows on Hengest's back, but the other male simply grunted and heaved.

House spun crazily through the air, so disorientated he couldn't have twisted to land properly even if he'd wanted to, and smashed shoulder first into the cobbled stones of the garden. He groaned, the skin scraped off his shoulder and bicep of that arm from the frost. His blood slicked to the stones and froze instantly. He had to break himself off to regain his feet. He staggered upright again and lifted both his fists, dropping into a battle crouch.

Hengest came at him with all the temerity of a hurricane in full flow. House blocked the first blow with his forearm, took the second in the face and then followed through with three lightening quick punches to Hengest's eye, mouth and throat. He dodged under Hengest's next clumsy swing, jerked his knee up and caught Hengest in the gut hard enough to crush the breath from him and have him doubling over. With a harshly directed elbow, House bruised his kidney and grinned feral when Hengest tumbled to the ground.

The older fey lashed out blindly behind with another wild kick, hoping to catch House on his bad leg again but he danced aside and kicked Hengest in the ribs like he was trying to launch a field goal from the fifty yard line.

Hengest was lifted clean off the ground with that blow and House drew back his leg for another. He was _so _not above kicking his enemy when he was down and Hengest had fallen into the category of enemy the moment he had dragged Lisa into this.

To say he was surprised when a delicate slippered foot slipped behind his ankle and whipped his leg out from under him, was probably the understatement of the century.

House's ankle kicked up over his head, his body twisted in the air and he crashed back down onto the cobbled stones hard enough to crack his head against them and have him seeing stars.

"Uh…!" He clutched at the back of his head and recoiled from the pain.

"What the hell!?" He opened his eyes, the bright light haloing his tiny attacker leaving him nonplussed and unable to identify the assailant's silhouette for a few second and then it dawned on him. "Oh…crap." He grumbled and Hengest, who he now lay next to, looked up and groaned in dejected defeat as well.

"Now, will somebody please explain to me _why_ my _hellren_ and his best-freaking-_FRIEND_ are beating the holy-hell out of each other!?"

Jacky planted her hands on her hips and looked expectantly at the surrounding crowd. Her collar glinted green and silver in the pale light in stark contrast to her café mocha skin, the hem of her deep green gown rippling with the rapid tapping of her slipper against the cobblestones.

"Well?" She watched the crowd disperse under her displeasured glare (which outstripped even Maab's in chill factor) and then rounded back onto the two males in her sights. "_Anybody_?!" She demanded of them.

"You started it." Hengest muttered and rubbed gingerly at his shoulder, still lying on the ground. He had the feeling if he tried to get up and started the 'honey, it's not what it looks like' line, he might just end up flat on his back and in a whole lot more pain in short order. "You tell her."

"Did not." House was still holding the back of his head gingerly. "She's your wife, _you_ deal with her."

"Just think," Hengest muttered with no small amount of malicious glee. "You have all of this to look forward to with _your _wife too."

"Yeah." House let his hand drop from his head and clunked it back against the cobbles in the vain hope that it might cause him to lose consciousness. He heaved a sigh and ground his teeth. "My wife that I can't touch or she'll be ruined for any other male." He growled.

Hengest rolled up on his elbow and (bravely or stupidly, he wasn't sure which) ignored the tapping of his wife's foot for another few seconds.

"What are you talking about? According to the old laws, you've been married for years. It's _you_ that's been ruined for any other."

House turned, only able to stare.


	7. Laws and Love

**Guilted into writing this one.**

**Enjoy. Reviews are love.**

**Laws and Love**

"Drink your tea."

House looked balefully over at Jackie, cloth wrapped ice pressed to the goose egg on the back of his head.

"I hate…" Jackie levelled The Look at him, the way Cuddy could when she was _livid_ and House picked up his tea and raised it to Jackie in a silent toast. "Yummy." He downed the entire handle-less cupful in one gulp and grimaced at the after taste and the sticky tea leaves left on his tongue. He kept the '_yick!'_ to himself though.

He wasn't suicidal.

Not yet anyway, but the conversation was young.

"So, would anybody like to explain to me why _I'm_ the one that's ruined between me and Swimbo?"

Jackie shot a look and Hengest.

"S.W.I.M.B.O." He supplied for her readily, nursing his swollen jaw. "She Who Must Be Obeyed."

"You know, for a supposed genius, you're pretty damn stupid." Jackie noted casually, sipping on her tea. House glared at her and she smirked at him smugly before going on to explain. "Cast your mind back, about eight years or so, what happened to you?"

"My leg got fucked. Not fun living as a mortal, FYI." House set his ice pack down and stole an iced cupcake-type-thing from the silver trey available and munched on it. Conversing with Jackie might have been dicey at the best of times, but she was an excellent baker. Couldn't cook worth shit (you apparently can't be good at both) but her cakes were the finest in the fortress.

"Then what happened?" Hengest knew, but he obviously wanted House to say it for some reason.

"They told me to cut my leg off, I told them to go screw themselves. They put me in a coma and then…Stacy, had them cut a chunk out my leg and cripple me."

"Who cut you?"

"Cuddy did. Her guilt made it mandatory. If she was going to ruin my life, she figured she might as have the lion's share of any bad karma going around."

"What did she cut you _with_? A scalpel?" Hengest received a glare from his wife and hurriedly sipped a healthy gulp of tea.

"No, a bread knife, _of course_ a scalpel, you idiot." House scowled at him and swallowed another cake without the hindrance of chewing and nearly choked on it when something occurred to him.

"And scalpels are made of…?" Jackie sing-songed at him.

"Iron." House flopped back against his chair. "She took a piece of me with iron."

His horns creaked, growing a few inches from his head when the ramifications of this echoed through his brain like a bomb blast. His eyes swirled through their entire spectrum of colours like a whirlpool in turbulent waters. His pupils dilated and a pink light shone from within his chest. The dragon flared, growing and curling around the light, jaws opening wide and spewing inked flame across House's belly. The pink light grew fiercer, House's chest became a kind of transparent until a stunned Hengest and Jackie could see the outline of his heart thundering in his chest. They had known that he cared for his mortal but…not this. They had never thought this.

House heaved in a breath trying to get himself under control. He swallowed hard and knew he was royally fucked and never in the good way. He reached up and scrubbed a hand through his hair. His head dipped down, his eyes shuttering. He gave a few shuddering breaths and the light dimmed, the dragon receded and he once more looked normal. Well, as normal as a high ranking member of the fey court can look.

"My friend…how long?" Hengest looked at House with a mixture of sympathy and shock on his face.

House husked a laugh that sounded nowhere near funny and hollow instead.

"Umm…about three seconds after I met her. Said something cutting, her eyes flashed with that blue fire she's got and…doomed. Fucking doomed." House heaved another sigh. "Doesn't matter. It changes nothing."

"Arctis, I would have thought that now, now that you know exactly what kind of connection you have…"

"No." Hengest looked like he was about to argue but House levelled a look at him like he was prepared to commit murder. "Not now, not ever, I could kill her. I go feral, you _know_ that."

"How did you manage with that Stacy baggage then?" Jackie demanded, nibbling on a cake of her own.

"She was particularly easy to dupe."

"Riiiiighht…well, I think this is a conversation best left to the men-folk."

Jackie set her cup down and stood. !I'm going to go find some of that silver venison you like, honey." Jackie reached out and trailed her mocha skinned hand over Hengest's cheek and down over his throat to his collar, that was a thicker version of her own. As soon as her fingers touched it, a silver shimmer of light flew up between, connecting their collars together. Jackie let her fingers drop, the entire shimmer had lasted for a mere second, but it was enough to have House looking away, his jaw clenching.

Hengest watched his wife leave and heaved a sigh.

"Well, looks like there's nothing else for it." He stood and winced a bit at the bruises getting stretched over his back. "Fire or frozen?"

"Fire." House muttered. "Always fire."

Hengest nodded and pulled a glowing bottle from within a cupboard. It was full of flaming, swirling liquor. He poured two doubles into their now empty teacups and flames flickered over the rims, orange and blue. House looked balefully at his, he seemed to have shrunk in on himself. His shoulders hunched, his back slumped and even his horns appeared to droop a little. He picked up his newly filled cup and, again, drained it in a single gulp.

Hengest threw back his own and refilled quickly.

This was going to be a rough evening.

**$inister $cribe**

Cuddy had awoken, hot, bothered and completely LIVID.

She had been in such a fierce mood that even Jack and Daniels had seen sense in cowering under the bed. Coke, however, with the complete lack of self preservation of the young, had fumbled out to rub his face against Cuddy's bare feet. She had, predictably, completely melted. Picking up the little cub and petting him, judging him to be the only one not in her sights. It was open season on everyone else, though. The first person that came through that door was getting a healthy portion of her ire, sexual frustration and general piss-offedness.

It had taken her several minutes to realise that she was storming about the apartment (restricted to prowling about in there when she reminded herself what had happened the last time she had gone out unescorted) completely naked. Some industrious rummaging had revealed that House had been thoughtful enough to provide her with clothing, alongside his at a trunk at the end of their bed.

Noooo…not THEIR bed (no Freudian slips here). HIS bed. She wasn't going anywhere near him. Nuh-uh. Not now, not ever. He was firmly on her naughty list and wasn't coming off it if he offered to do clinic for life and full body massages on demand.

She set down Coke long enough to shrug herself into a silvery furred robe (she didn't want to think about how many animals had died for it but it felt suspiciously like several innocent bunnies). She was just pondering how to punish House while remaining restricted to the apartment (the idea of tidying up, alphabetising everything and folding all of his clothes _neatly_ was extremely tempting, just to fuck with his chaotic tendencies), the door swung open.

Cuddy reacted before she even had conscious thought of what she was doing.

"Bastard!" Her hand closed on something, she didn't know what and didn't stop to check, and launched it across the room in a fashion that would have done a pro-baseball pitcher proud….and maybe a little envious.

"Yipe!" The mocha skinned woman that had just walked in the door ducked with lightening reflexes and the crystal decanter filled with some kind of blue glowing liquid, shattered against the wall with a tinkling explosive sound. Everything the liquid touched, instantly froze. Including the hem of the woman's silvery green dress.

Okay, so, not the target she had wanted, but good enough.

"Who the hell are you?!"

The woman straightened, looked at the wall behind her, down at the frozen hem of her dress with a heavy sigh and then back up at Cuddy.

"Girl, you gotta work on your introducing skills."

"You haven't answered my question." Cuddy folded her arms over her chest, ignoring how the robe slipped off one shoulder, refusing to apologise even though she felt she should and glared fiercely.

"See what he means about blue fire." The woman muttered and dusted ineffectually at her skirt. "Damn it, you do realise this crap _never_ comes out? This was my favourite dress too…"

"Any time you want to either tell me who you are or get out, is fine with me." Cuddy's voice dropped to that growl that had made grown men cower for her amusement and the woman barely blinked.

"I'm Jackara Hengestellren." One last hopeful flick at the skirt that stubbornly remained frozen and then she gave her full attention to Cuddy. "What's your name?"

Cuddy's head kicked back when she thought about House's warning not to tell anyone what her name was.

"Call me Doctor…House. If you have to call me anything."

"So, it's like that is it?" Jackara strode into the room and lifted the fur hanging off the end of the bed. "It's okay, kids. Mommy's finished throwing a hissy fit."

Jack and Daniels cautiously crawled out from under the bed, picked up Coke and made a hasty retreat to the other room. Cuddy had since discovered that there was more than one. Bathroom and even a small kitchen type area.

Cuddy opened her mouth to deny said hissy fit and then clapped it shut when something else occurred to her.

"You know…the Knight Arctis?"

"Well, yes, he and my husband are blood brothers. Call me Jackie by the way. I hate Jackara."

"Blood brothers." Cuddy repeated it and rubbed at her temple. All this magic shit was giving her a headache.

"Yeah." Jackie sat down on the bed and arranged her partially permafrost skirt around her carefully. "I'm glad he's got you. He's been on his own a long time."

"Hou- -Arctis, likes being alone. It means he can exercise his right to be a miserable fuck-tard to his fullest potential." Cuddy uttered through gritted teeth and Jackie raised one brow at her.

"He's not miserable around you though."

"And how could you possibly know that?" Cuddy levelled a glare at the woman even as she sat down on the bed. She still had a firm grip on her foul mood but the temptation to talk to another woman, anotherclosely resembling _normal_ woman, was a strong pull for her.

"He told me. Like this robe thing you've got going on. Any particular reason you're going not-naked-but-only-just?"

Cuddy levelled another glare at her and then smirked a little. "First thing that came to hand."

"An irate hand I imagine. I wasn't getting the warm and fuzzy feelings from you when I walked in the door."

"You didn't knock." Cuddy answered straight away. After years of lightening quick razor edge banter with House, anyone else was easy to talk circles around.

"Well, I suppose my lover leaving me in the lurch would do that to me too." Jackie carefully scrutinised her nails.

"You're telling me, the rat…" Cuddy sighed and shot a look at Jackie out the corner of her eye. "Well played."

Jackie grinned cat-like.

"Good, now that we've established that you both have a serious jonesing for each other and that you both…" Jackie leant forward and into Cuddy's personal space. Cuddy shifted nervously, but she couldn't go any further without falling off the bed so she met Jackie's stare head on. "Yeah, so now that we know you both love each other too," she talked blithely through Cuddy's spluttering denial at that, "we can get down the nitty-gritty business of how we're going to convince him that it's okay for you two to be together."

"I don't want to be with him. He's insensitive, cruel a bastard and he sucks at sex." Okay, so that last part wasn't technically true but- -

"_Don't_ call him that!" Jackie whirled on her, pale eyes blazing and Cuddy looked up in surprise.

"Which bit?"

"Don't ever call him bastard. Not to his face and not to anyone else. It may be his title in certain circles but anyone who cares for him doesn't even think that word around him." Jackie sucked in a breath. "His parents, or lack therof, ruined his life, or the life he could have had. You…don't know." Jackie had looked up to see a mystified Cuddy looking right back.

"Know what?"

"You mean he hasn't TOLD you?"

"Hey, up until a couple of days ago, I thought horny ba--hound dog was just an expression when applied to him."

"You didn't know he was fey?"

"I think we've established this."

"And you've not gone nuts?"

"Unless you're a hallucination, then I am still on my trolley, in full possession of all marbles and have all the fries in my Happy Meal."

Jackie kicked her head back in a sudden laugh.

"Oh yeah, no wonder he loves you."

"He doesn't…"

"Honey, the sooner you realise that me being right is a constant of the universe, the easier your life will be." Cuddy looked a little mulish about the whole thing, but she didn't refute it either.

"Fine," she said instead, "what else are you right about?"

"That you want him. A lot." Jackie folded her legs up onto the bed and took on a thoughtful expression. "And that he's afraid to have you."

"He's afraid of me?" Cuddy hadn't expected that, of all things. "The man's twice my size."

"Exactly. Arctis is a…feral kind of fey. The mix of summer and winter in him causes him to be unstable. He naturally doesn't want to conform to any one set of rules. He literally can't do it and…when applied to you, that scares him."

"Still not getting it."

"He told you that if you and he had sex, then he'd ruin you for other men."

"How'd you know that?" Cuddy looked at her a little warily. Exactly how much had House told this woman?

"Honey, they _all_ say that. They just don't realise that the entire lot of us are perfectly willing to be 'ruined' at every opportunity available."

They shared a very feminine smirk together.

"Either way, the first time a fey takes a mortal, they forge a connection that can't be broken. It's called Claiming. They can, of course, screw other fey to their heart's content and, sometimes, continue to do so even after Claiming their mortal."

"Oh, so he can sleep around but I'm stuck in monogamy?" At Jackie's look Cuddy explained. "I'm very equal opportunities."

"Oh, right, the feminist thing. Thank God I left before that happened. Anyway, feral fey are exactly how they sound. Dangerous. At least they can be. Arctis thinks that if he claims you then he'll lose control. That he could kill you, or at the very least, maim you."

"He'd never hurt me." The words were out of Cuddy's mouth on the heels of the thought. She seemed to have lost that filter between brain and mouth somewhere in this crazy-assed realm and it looked like it was going to stay gone.

"You're sure?"

"Without a doubt." Brain filter still offline. "He might want to sometimes, but he can never bring himself to do it." Physically speaking. His words could cut deeper.

"You're positive?"

"_Yes."_ Brain filter completely MIA.

"Good!" Jackie sat up and rubbed her hands together.

Oh God in heaven, what now?

"Now, how to capture your man-thing in three easy steps. One; dress to kill." Jackie looked her up and down. Thin luxuriously furred robe, kiss swollen lips, love bite on neck and just-been-tumbled hair. Check! "Two: this is sugar root, it's his favourite food in the entire universe and he'll do almost anything to have it." Jackie pulled a paper package from somewhere and unwrapped it to reveal two pink twisted things that even smelled good. "Three: grab your fey by the horns."

"Take charge?"

"No, sweetie, I mean literally."

**$inister $cribe**

House very, very, carefully opened the door to his quarters and poked his head inside. The buzz of alcohol in his head did nothing to dull his survival instincts. He scanned the room and frowned when he found it empty. The trepidation at having to face Cuddy's ire was abruptly replaced by worry for where she had gone. Surely she hadn't ventured out on her own again. No, she must be in the bathroom. She was safe, she had to be. Any other option was simply not allowed.

Throwing the door open all the way, he prowled into the room, horns held high and a fierce scowl on his face. If _anyone_ had dared to come in here in his absence, he'd rip out their throat with his teeth and feed it to them.

No one challenged him in his territory.

He flicked the door shut with a loud bang.

She was in here, he knew it. He could taste her in here. The knowledge of exactly how he was bound to her (and bound he was) thudded in his brain with every beat of his heart. That he couldn't act on it was neither here nor there, he could still treat her as his own. Cherished, protected, possessed, _his._

"Well, well, look who finally came back."

House whipped his hear around so fast he nearly suffered whiplash.

She was out on the balcony. He was moving towards her before he could give his feet conscious instruction to do so. She was leaning on the wide marble carved wall around the balcony. Snow swirled down and clung to her hair, shoulders and…and…where had she found that robe and _why_ was she letting it show off the girls so much? House was momentarily fascinated by each unique snowflake melting on her warm, warm, curves before a familiar scent caught his nose and his eyes tracked up to her mouth and what she was, Gods above and below, what she was _licking_. Sugar root was held in her hand with paper wrapped around one end and her tongue around the other.

House swallowed very hard.

"Do I not even warrant a 'hello' now?"

House cleared his throat. Once. Twice. Then spoke with a gravel rough voice.

"Hi."

"Hmm." She seemed to be enjoying the sugar root. It was one of the best things in the worlds as far as he was concerned. As was Cuddy. The two things combined were enough to have his grip on his control slipping dangerously.

He remembered the way the naturally occurring candy had tasted. Sweet, fruity, it had melted on his tongue and had dripped like a melting ice cream in the heat of his mouth. He watched Cuddy twist the candy to lick at one of the milky white melting droplets of the candy. Ride her tongue all the way to the tip and then take it into her mouth. Her cheeks hollowing and her eyes fluttering closed in pleasure as she sucked.

It felt like all the blood in House's body made a U-turn in his veins and headed for his cock.

He whimpered a tiny bit.

She opened her eyes and looked at him through half lidded lashes. She pulled the candy from her mouth, licking a drop of white from the corner of her lip.

"Did you say something?"

House blinked a few times.

Really hard.

"Is that some really odd kind of Morse code?"

"You're playing with me, you little cocktease."

"Hey, you started it." She sucked the root back into her mouth and House's brain went on stand-by again while he fully appreciated that sight. She pulled it out again with an audible pop and House groaned, wanting to look away but quite unable. "Actually, I do remember coming quite hard with your fingers deep inside me," she sucked her lip to absorb the taste of the root again, "but I still don't feel quite as _fulfilled_ as I'd like to." An elegant shrug. "Or just plain filled. I'm not picky."

He took a step towards her, meaning it to be menacing. Failing completely. "Cuddy, stop playing with fire."

"I kind of like the fire." Her hand reached out and stroked over his tattoo. The dragon flexed under her palm and so did House. The dragon grew, crawling and coiling all the way from his collarbone down to below his navel. She followed it right the way down and slid her finger along the top of his leather breeches. House was really wishing that he'd borrowed one of Hengest's shirts before coming back here. House began to pant. Chest heaving, muscles rippling over his belly where she was plucking idly at the laces which were now straining over a none-too-subtle bulge.

"You don't know what you'd be getting into with me." He wanted to convince her. Wanted to convince himself because, right now, he wanted nothing more than to do exactly what they both wanted.

"I think we both want you to be getting into me." She smiled sweetly and arched up on her toes so her mouth was a breath away from his. She lifted the sugar root and trailed the wet end over his lower lip. "I'm not afraid. I want you. Take me." She leaned into him, licking up the root until she was lapping over his lip as well.

That was it, there was only so much a fey could take.

With a growl, his hand closed over hers around the root and shifted it out of the way. His mouth angled over hers and his tongue thrust inside, sliding along hers and licking inside her.

She groaned into her mouth. Satisfied, as always, at having gotten what she wanted. Her free hand slid into his hair and gripped there tightly, keeping him under her control until she could force him to lose his.

She smiled against his mouth. She couldn't help it.

Poor House, he had no idea that he wouldn't be able to stop this time.


	8. Villainous and Violent

**Ta-dah.**

**As per multitudinous request. **

**See, not abandoned. **

**Hey, you never know, Prank 2 Far could be next. Unless of course y'all want something else updated first. Requests should be dropped in a review box or email. **

**Anyways, without further ado, on with the show. **

**Villainous and Violent**

"My Queen?"

Princep Troy of the winter court looked up at his mother, his brows drawing together in a frown. The Queen had surged up and out of her obsidian and ice throne, looking off into the distance. Her head was tilted to the side as if she was straining to hear something from far off.

Her eyes flew wide.

"NO!" Her arm lashed out. Cold air blasted in front of her hand and washed over the nearest thralled mortal servant.

Troy leapt back, he knew what was about to happen. Freezing wasn't like how the mortal's portrayed it in their cinemas. Ice didn't coat the victim, turn them blue, or let their eyes dance about comically in their head while they struggled to move.

Tiny whirling particles of water washed over the human at negative two hundred and fifty degrees. His cells flash froze in an instant, expanding outwards, buckling into one another. The resulting explosion didn't even give him time to scream. Those parts of him that had been frozen shattered on the floor. The parts of him that hadn't splattered against the walls and ceiling.

Everyone in court stilled and turned to their queen.

Troy didn't see her coming before her hand was wrapped around his throat and his feet had left the floor.

"Who is she?!"

Troy choked and clawed at his mother's hand. She held him easily off the floor and he flailed uselessly trying to get free.

"I don't know!" He gasped, his struggles weakening. "The trolls chased her through with him. She's only a mortal."

"Only a mortal!?" She threw him to the floor and he crumpled there, gasping. "Only mortal?" She towered over him and her hands fisted at her sides. Everyone else in the throne room was deathly quiet. Waiting to see if the Queen's legendary temper would finally snuff out her son. He who she favoured most of all. He who she claimed to love. If he could fall by her hand then they were all a lot less safe than they thought.

"She means nothing." Troy choked.

"You idiot! Have I taught you nothing?!" She shrieked and the others in the room began to slink away. They wanted no part in this. The Queen had already killed once and they had no desire to be caught in the crossfire.

"What?" Troy demanded, finally managing to rise to one knee. He dare not go further. If he got up, chances were the next time she put him down it would be permanently.

"She's not just A mortal, she's HIS mortal. Do you realise what you've done? If she binds to him then he becomes truly immortal. Not even I can stop that!"

Troy mulled this over.

"Have they bonded yet?"

"No. Luckily for you. They are a ways off." She folded her arms over her chest and stalked away from him. Troy gingerly pulled himself up onto the steps leading to the throne. He sat carefully and nursed his bruised neck.

"Then there is still a way to use this to our advantage." He croaked.

"Do tell, son of mine. How do you expect to extricate yourself from my ill graces? I wait with baited breath." Maab turned to him with a shark's cruel smile.

"Arctis is ignorant of the ways of the Fey." Troy adjusted his jacket as he made his intentions clear. "If he doesn't know the powers he's playing with, then they could blow up in his face. He knows nothing of the bonding. I see no need to enlighten him. One such as him with power like that. He'll go feral. He'll kill her without realising what he's doing." Troy smirked a grin that matched his mother's in icy cruelty. "Then he'll kill himself too."

Maab arched a brow at him.

"Your great plan is to let his ignorance be his downfall.?"

"You said it yourself. There is no greater with the sword. Hoping for him to be caught on a poisoned blade is a slim chance at best. This, at least, is a plausible solution that involves no bloodshed on our part."

"Your part." She corrected him. "There is a chance that when he goes feral, he'll turn on the fortress."

"If this bond is as strong as you claim. I think not."

She looked at him for a long moment and Troy held his breath. His mother was mercurial at the best of times and he had made a grievous error in allowing the mortal to live without realising her significance. He bit back a flinch when his Queen stalked towards him and reached out to him once more. He relaxed infinitesimally when she simply laid her hand against his cheek.

"Clever boy." She stroked his hair and he bowed his head in subservience while inside he seethed. Soon he would be the one with the power and she on her knees.

"Clever boy." She said again and he let himself smile.

Yes, his plan was working.

Clever boy indeed.

**$inister $cribe**

Elsewhere in the castle, there was another mortal and another fey who were a lot less interested in the politics of power.

Right now, all House was interested in was claiming his mortal.

His hands found the belt of her robe and tore it open. She shivered when the frigid air of his homeland washed over her. His tongue wrapped around a pebbled nipple and then she shivered for an entirely different reason.

"God, House." She threw her head back and he boosted her up onto the balcony railing, spreading her legs and stepping in between them. "More."

He'd stop in a minute.

He could still pleasure her, couldn't he? Nothing wrong with that. It wasn't a claiming. He had done it before with no ill effects. She was still her own person. The cuff was still on his arm. It hadn't moved.

No. Nothing wrong with bringing her to peak.

Again and again and again.

Reassured, he pulled the sugar root from her hand and set his devious mind to thinking of ways to combine his two favourite tastes in the world. Cuddy and candy. Hmm….it bore some thought.

Thought that became increasingly difficult with the way she was rubbing her hand over the front of his breeches. He growled into her mouth when he kissed her again and she chuckled right back at him.

"This isn't a game."

"It is fun though." She teased him and he snarled, gripping her by the thighs and dragging her legs around his hips. He rocked forward and ground the hard ridge of his cock over her core. She gasped and jerked in his hold as nerve endings fired off in her body in flash-fire sequence. Her hands tore at the laces of his breeches and she gave her own little growl of frustration when she couldn't coordinate herself enough to untie them.

"No." He pulled her hand away. "Can't do that." His chest was heaving.

"This is _not_ going to be one sided again." She told him and squirmed in his grip. He held her easily, though he was definitely distracted by the way her breasts were crushed against his chest by the way she was writhing against him.

"Has to be." His distracted her by nibbling at her neck around the collar. The metal pulsed against their skin and he felt an answering throb at his wrist. The chain sprang into existence between them again and energy flowed between them along its connection. His pleasure became hers and hers poured through him like liquid metal. He shivered and scrabbled for control.

He could hold back. He could do this. He just had to make sure his breeches stayed on and it was nothing more than his hands and his tongue that touched her.

He could do this.

Her hand slid inside his breeches and he choked off a cry of pleasure when she wrapped her fingers around his straining length.

There was no way he could do this.

"Stop." He told her.

"Say it like you mean it." She dragged him forward and worked his leathers down over his hips. He growled. His skin was beginning to glow. He could feel his reasoning slipping from his grasp with every confidant slide of her hand along his cock.

It was his turn to squirm. He tried to pull away. He was easily ten times stronger than her but he couldn't quite find a way to break her grip on him. The sugar root dropped from his hands, forgotten. His nails scored over the marble and left deep tracks in the stone. His chest heaved and he panted steam. The dragon lashed over his belly and he nearly died then and there when she wrapped her legs around him and his cock slid over her wet heat.

"Yes."

"No." He pleaded with her. "Don't make me do this. It will break you." His body trembled all over. Every muscle quaked. Whether it was from the effort of trying to pull away or hold himself back he couldn't tell anymore.

"I'm very flexible. I'll bend but I won't break." She pressed kisses to his lips and he hissed out a long pained breath between clenched fangs.

"Cuddy…" His hips bucked towards her and they both moaned at the slippery slide of contact.

"Enough talking." She told him. She slid her hands up the side of his face and kissed him fiercely. "Time for doing." Her fingers tunnelled into his hair and wrapped around his horns.

House jerked as if electrified. A wordless cry was flung from his lips and every single nerve ending in his body fired at once. He pounced on her almost against his will and drove her further back over the balcony railing. His grip on her hips and hers on his horns were the only things preventing her from tumbling hundreds of feet to her death far below. Even that sobering thought did nothing to stop him from arching against her.

"Mine." He gasped and hooked one of her legs over his arm wrapping his other arm around her waist and dragging her flush against him.

His horns creaked as they lengthened in her hold and straightened up from his head. She rubbed them slowly from base to tip exactly the same way as she had rubbed his cock. The sensations were just as intense but multiplied. The light in his chest intensified and he tore her robe from her completely. Only he would be on her keeping her warm. Snow evaporated to steam on their bodies as each fluffy flake touched down on them. He was losing control. It was slipping from his grasping fingers and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He could no more break her hold on his horns than he could snap them off.

"Do it, House. Fuck me. Claim me." Her words, coupled with a sharp tug on his horns, sent him over the edge.

He jerked her towards him with a snarl and several things happened at once.

His cock plunged into her in one fluid thrust. Stars burst behind her eyes. His teeth sank into her where her neck met her shoulder under the edge of her collar. He bit deep and drew blood. His fingers dug into her hips hard enough to bruise and the marble creaked under them. Dust filtering from new cracks in the stone.

Cuddy didn't even have the breath to scream.

Whatever she had expected, it wasn't this. Good God.

The violence.

He'd just bitten her. She could see the flush of her own red blood on his marble pale lip, feel it trickling down over her chest and he was lapping it up off her skin. He had just rammed balls deep inside her with no warning whatsoever. Slammed so deep and so fast she was surprised he hadn't split her in two. All the breath had been forced from her lungs. It took her a couple of attempts before she remembered how to breathe and by that point the had wrapped her hair around one fist and yanked her head back, arching her back over the balcony railing so that she hung in nothing but air.

All of that, shocking and terrifying as it was, was nothing compared to the pleasure.

She was on fire. For every moment of pain, and she did hurt, fireworks of pleasure were blasting along her nervous system. She thought she was going to pass out it was so good and then, oh God, he started to _move_.

She was trapped in the cage of his arms, hanging over the precipice yawning beneath her. He rolled his hips against hers, withdrawing from her slowly and then sliding back in all the way to the hilt. He was huge, filling her and there was something…odd about the shape of him. He was rubbing her deep inside, in the wrong place. Not that it wasn't pleasurable, he'd barely been inside her a minute and she was already only three gasps from orgasm, but there was definitely something alien about the way his cock caught inside her every time he tried to pull out all the way. Each time it happened, something burst inside her, a little bolt of electricity that shot outward from her womb and made every single muscle in her body jerk in ecstasy.

She cinched her legs around him. She needed more. She needed it right now. He needed to move faster. To take her harder. She clawed at his shoulders and did some biting of her own. She scraped the skin of his shoulder with her teeth, though she couldn't pierce the skin like he had hers. Apparently the thought counted because he snarled and arched inside her. More electricity sparked inside her and it was all she could stand.

She cried out, her fist thumping against his back with a harsh thud. Her teeth bit deeper into his shoulder and hot blood welled against her tongue. Her nails scored deep down his back and he purred at her for it.

He didn't let her come down from the high. Just changed the angle and thrust deeper. Cuddy thought she was going to die. The pleasure wouldn't stop. She couldn't cope. Her vision kept whiting out. She felt the ground beneath her tremble. Heard the crumble of masonry. Chunks broke away from the balcony and she felt him get closer and closer to the edge. The pleasure became a living thing. Clawing at her, devouring her. He was all over her. Stroking, biting, kissing. It felt like he wanted to crawl inside her and share her skin.

He was so hot, he steamed. The dragon had grown over his skin until pale marble flesh had turned to scorched scales. They rubbed her deliciously the wrong way. Magical flames licked over her skin. He held her tighter and thrust harder. He was saying something to her. Murmuring in her ear in that alien language of his. She didn't understand the words, she had the feeling she couldn't have understood plain English at that point, but she felt what he felt and it was too big and too powerful to be put into words.

House gave way at exactly the same time as the railing.

The stone pulverised beneath them and House roared in her ear as he came. She clung to him and convulsed as another orgasm savaged her. She felt him explode deep inside her, hot electric fire. She was incapable of screaming to let some of it out. Her collar seemed to tighten around her throat and go white hot. It sent the pleasure on a feedback loop between the two of them and it didn't stop until Cuddy finally surrendered to it and blacked out.

She came too a few seconds later. Hanging upside down. Looking at a misty precipice hundreds of feet below her. She tensed and gave a muffled squeak.

"Just a…second." House panted above her and shimmied backwards. He pulled her back gently, flexing the one arm he had holding them up until he could pull them both back onto the balcony. He rested on his haunches and she straddled him in a boneless blissed out heap. He was still buried deep inside her and would remain that way for a while. Something she discovered when she tried to move.

"Whuh…" She caught her breath and tried again. "What is that?"

"Hey, where did you get your medical degree?" He half smiled at her, still panting. He felt like he'd been running for at least a year.

"House…"

"It's a barb."

Cuddy's eyes, that had been closed in a kind of battered post coital bliss, flew open.

"Say again?"

"A…barb. In my dick. Stops me from pulling out. I'm feral. I _told _you that." He said, a note of accusation in his tone.

"Oh…okay. I just didn't notice it before." She lay against him, their chests still heaving in unison. "You were glowing."

House looked down at her. Slightly nonplussed at her blasé acceptance of yet another Fey eccentricity of himself.

"Yeah." Reality was beginning to crystallise. Oh shit, he'd just taken her. Pinned her to the freaking wall and fucked her clean through it. A part of him was horrified at the ramifications. The other, larger, more primal part of him, was too busy revelling in the Claiming and enjoying the way her internal muscles were giving the occasional squeeze around his cock. He felt a rumbling purr pull from his chest before he could stop himself. He looked down at her and swept her hair from her face. He froze when he saw the horrific bite on her neck.

"Jesus." He hauled her up and tilted her to inspect it. "Fuck. I'm so sorry. Let me…gaaaahhhh…" He trailed off in a hiss when he tried to lift her off him and the barb in his dick went to work. He jolted as another mini orgasm was torn from him. She shuddered in reply and hummed in the back of her throat. Falling limp against his chest once more. She let her head rest on his shoulder with a sleepy sigh.

"Sorry for what?"

"Your neck, I…"

"S'fine." She slurred. "Did the same to you." She made a show of wiping purplish blood from her lip.

"It's bruising." He protested.

"So's everything else." She muttered, shifting carefully, sitting up. She seemed to be coming back to herself. She blinked a few times. Reached up and stroked her hair back from her face to reveal a satisfied little smile.

He looked at her warily waiting for the horror that was sure to turn up at some point. Females were always horrified at what he did. Without exception. The winter fey just couldn't hold up against a summer's carnalities. He could have killed her. What was he thinking?

"I have a question." She said finally and he braced himself. Waiting for the cutting remark and the cold words to leave her and never come back.

"Shoot." He mumbled unhappily. Better to just get it over with.

"How soon can we do that again?"


End file.
